The Ruby Talbot Chronicles
by SheWhoRunsWithWolves
Summary: Ruby Talbot is your average orphaned nineteen year old hiding a supernatural secret. Her boring life gets interesting when goons from The local seethe come to kidnap her for their Queen. Good thing Stefan has enough humanity to keep her safe.. or does he?
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Ted Newman, my sweaty boss at the Tri-Cities roller rink, is a total creep. I'd known that when I took the job but hey, I'd rather work for a creeper than starve to death any day. Tonight that decision would bite me in the ass…

At ten-thirty sharp, I was in the girls locker room changing from ugly red uniform to familiar street clothes when I heard two sets of footsteps come through the front door.

"Sorry," It was Ted speaking. "We're closed already."

I pulled my tiny black t-shirt over my head and read lacy bra, and pulled it down to the middle of my torso, (as far as it went down) and scratched at the tan scar that sliced across my right hip.

"Oh!" Ted exclaimed. "A-Andre. I wasn't expecting you 'til t-tomorrow night." He sounded stressed. Fearful.

I pictured Ted doing that disgusting knuckle popping thing that he did whenever he talked with people, and then slapped it out of my mind. Literally. I shimmied out of my ugly black uniform slacks, hopped into my dark grey, holed and torn straight-leg jeans (I'd bought them one size too big on purpose) and started replacing my many rings, bracelets, ear piercings and one nose ring.

"Well." Began a charismatic voice I wouldn't have guessed would belong to a friend of Ted's, "You've not updated us in some time now. We were beginning to get worried." I heard a sarcastic smile in the voice.

"I-I-I have it but it's not ready yet."

_Is this scumbag selling drugs? _I tousled my waist length brunette mane and pulled it into one huge messy bun as I continued eavesdropping._ Where would he keep drugs anyways? I've been cleaning this place for two years, even his office .If he had anything; I would have found it by now._

"Type?" Said the handsome voice as I shoved my size eights into my black and grey checkered slip on vans.

"AB Negative. Female."

I froze. _That's a blood type. As in 'A Human Being' blood type. As in my blood type. What the fuck is he up to?_

"Ah. Very rare. Marsilia will be most pleased." Andre sighed.

I shrugged into my black JanSport back pack, flicked of the locker room light and crept to the room entrance to peak through the crack of an opening. There were two men standing in front of a very greasy Mr. Newman. And when I say '_Greasy' _I really mean it. His head was shiny and bald, aside from a small strip of blond hair that he liked to comb over and he sweats. A lot. The rings under his arms and staining the front of his nasty wife-beater proved that.

"And you're sure she has the 'ability'?" The familiar voice I'd been listening to came from an attractive young man standing closest to my repulsive boss.

_Did he just say something about my ability? Oh… I am so fucked…_

Anton had short light brown hair and dressed like he'd paid top dollar for all the designer styles he wore. _What a Patsy…_ The other man, whose back was to me, had straight jet-black hair that brushed the very tops of his shoulders. He was wearing a blue and orange Hawaiian shirt, (collared) attractive beaten up jeans, and a pair of blue converse.

Both of them were thin, in shape. No way could I take them if they jumped me. "Shit…" I hissed under my breath.

Just then, Mr. Stupid-Shirt stiffened. He turned his head slightly, angling his ear towards the locker rooms. I started breathing heavy. _He must have heard me._ All of a sudden his chest started to rise and fall. It was only then that I realized He hadn't been breathing. _Fuck, fuck, fuck… First Fae, then Weres, now what? Vamps? _ I guessed the made sense. If there are Werewolves, there certainly ought to be Vampire.

He turned around completely and pretended to be looking at the pictures on display. I knew better than that. He must be smelling for me. He walked closer to the locker rooms, following the timeline trail of rollerblading photos that I'd spent hours putting up, with observing eyes. I should have been panicking. Should have hyperventilated and ran off. But I could do nothing but stare. He was _Gorgeous_.

I snapped out of it when Andre called his name. "Stefan. What is it?"

'_Yeah, Stefan. What have you found?' _I thought.

I jumped up and made a run for the window at the back of the locker room. By the way, outrunning a Vampire is something I won't try again anytime soon. Not seriously anyways. Andre and Stefan busted through the door and someone was on me. The back of my head hit the tile floor with a loud _thud_ that left my head spinning for a few moments. I heard Ted shuffling into the room. He switched on the light and I could see that It was Andre who was on top of me. Ted stayed in the door way, and Stefan just leaned against the far wall arms crossed, eyes closed. Like he does things like this on a daily (or nightly) basis.

"You've done well, Mr. Newman." I could feel Andre's cool breath on my face as he spoke to Ted, staring into my eyes. "Now let us take it from here." Ted didn't object. Didn't even say a word. Just ran out of the building. _The cold hearted bastard…_

"I'll kill you if you don't get of off me, just like I'll kill that douche-bag of a boss for leaving me here!" I snarled at Andre. When He hissed and flashed his fangs I spat in his face. That's when he beat me._ Ever had a Vampire punch you in the gut? Not a good feeling…_

He pounded into my torso six agonizing times, not waiting for me to catch my breath. I laid there gasping for oxygen, thinking I was going to suffocate while he straddled my thighs and clasped one hand over my throat. I felt blood in my mouth, my throat. Felt it leaking down the corners of my mouth. He used my neck to pound my head into the tile a few more times and when he stopped and let me lay there, I felt the warm crimson life ooze from the back of my skull and out onto the floor. I looked over to Stefan again. He was staring at me now, gazing at me from underneath casual lashes.

"You're lazy…" I said to him.

He opened his eyes and really looked at me, something apologetic invading his calm expression.

Andre leaned down to lick the blood from the corner of my mouth. "She's the one, alright." I looked at him as he savored the taste of my blood, and he looked at me too. Looked into me. Looked through me.

Then I blacked out.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

I finally came to my senses in a basement. At least it felt like a basement. I couldn't see, but it smelled like wet stone. I was kneeling on cement and the echoing clicking of many pairs of shoes on the hard ground told me that the walls were stone or cement too. The black bag was yanked off my head so I could see.

I knelt there in a cellar full of Vampire. Twenty of them, I'd say. They all seemed to dress in robes and dresses of the era's in which their human lives ended. (aside from Mr. Hawaiian-Shirt who stood to my right) They looked ancient. Scary. But I wouldn't be afraid of them. No sir. I was about to be the biggest pain in the ass and I was going to enjoy every second of it until they decided to kill me.

A woman at the head of the gigantic spacious cellar rose from the throne she sat in and addressed me. "Want is your name, girl?" I think the only thing more beautiful than her golden blonde hair and elegant movements, was the Italian accent with which she spoke.

"Whats _your _name?" I snorted sarcastically, tilting my head.

"Marsilia." She managed after a long hateful silence. _So this is the bitch who'll be so 'pleased' with me? Time to put that to the test. _"I am in charge he—"

"Well, duh." I cut her off, much to her displeasure. "It's quite obvious, don't you think? Either you're the head honcho, or you Cats are playing 'make-believe' with the chair," I nodded towards the throne of ridiculous proportions. " 'til the real boss-man gets back."

I never would have thought the room could get any quieter, but it did. Marsilia's lips quivered with anger and she moved towards me. The way she moved sent a shiver down my spine. It was so... unnatural, the way she walked. Something about everything that she was, was just off. Her expressions, her movement, her tone of voice. She walked to the edge of the platform that her and her giant chair resided on and then she was in front of me. I didn't she her walk there, either. It was more like she appeared there. Her long white gown didn't even sway or ripple with the aftermath of movement. She stood there as if she always had. As if she'd been there all along.

She wrinkled her perfect little nose and smirked, about to say something cold and heartless when a dead man burst through the door to my left. "You all can start now!" He announced with a blast of courage and triumph. Spoken like a warrior prince come home from battle. His thick English accent made his entrance all the more impressive. His bare chest of solid rock didn't hurt either. "Marsilia, my Dear. Who has The Soldier brought for us today?" He looked straight at Stefan when he'd said 'The Soldier'. _Is that what they called him? The Soldier?_

"The Soldier brings you nothing." I spat.

They both looked at me incredulously, as did the others in the room.

"What did you say, Little Lamb?" The Brit asked me, glaring a promise of death.

"I said, 'The Soldier brings you nothing.'" He snarled at my horrible attempt at his accent. "All he did was watch."

"I brought you here. Andre did not." Stefan hissed. That's the first time I'd heard his voice, deep, strong, full of some emotion I couldn't quite place. _Worry, maybe?_

"Oh I remember, Mr. Bright Shirt. I remember you leaned up against the wall with your eyes closed while your friend Anton-or-whatever kicked my ass. How chivalrous you are." I didn't turn to look at him until I said, "You make a terribly shitty Vampire, you know that, Mr. Crazy Shirt?" If he were a dog, he'd have growled just then I'm sure.

The Brit laughed out loud. "Hurt your feelings, did she, Mr. Bright Shirt?" To Marsilia he said. "Oh God, I do like this one quite well, can we keep her a little while longer?" He wrapped an arm around her and leaned against her.

"She will be here to stay if she can control her ability." She stated. "And her mouth."

_My ability? Oh… yeah… right. God damn it…_

"But she will have to be tamed before we make that final decision." She continued.

"I'll tame her, now." The Englishman took a step toward me with hungry eyes, but Stefan appeared in between us, just as Marsilia had appeared in front of me.

Stefan snarled and received curious eyes from Marsilia. "You protect her?" Marsilia asked the question that was written all over the Brits face. "Do you want her, then?"

"I do." Stefan's voice hummed.

_What?_ "Do I have a say in this?" I snapped up at Stefan's back.

"No." He couldn't have gotten the point across with that tone of voice better than if he'd turned around and shouted it in my face. I stayed quiet. Very quiet.

"And the beast is silenced." Marsilia cooed. "Excellent. You have one month to break her, Soldier. After that, she will face The Chair."

"Mistress." He acknowledged her and bowed. Then he turned to me. "Come." He said with the same fierceness as before. He extended his hand to me.

I wasn't going to take it. I didn't want his help or sympathy… but I needed it. In all seriousness, His stupid friend had done some serious damage. I wouldn't be able to stand up straight, let alone walk in this condition without some help. I reached out to him, realizing for the first time that my hands were not bound. They had been, though. Purple bruises stained my wrists like thick bracelet's of pain. I took his right hand in my own, and he pulled it up and wrapped it around his neck before grabbing my waist, and then sweeping my feet out from under me with his other arm. I winced at the pain of movement and became dizzy.

I must have passed out again, because next we were outside by ourselves and he was about to load me into a bright green bus.

He grabbed something from the seat he was about to plop me into and chucked it into the back seats. "What the hell?" I mumbled as he laid me down in the front passenger seat. I sat sideways, feet dangling out. Stefan's arms were still under the backs of my knees and around my waist. He paused like that, waiting for me to say something. "Are you loading me into the 'Mystery Machine'?" I peered at the side of the Volkswagen to observe the psychedelic flowers and groovy font painted on the face of the bus.

His chest was still against me when he started to chuckle. It was a very deep, closed mouth laugh that rumbled in his chest and shook the both of us. "I am a fan. What can I say?" He had an accent too. Italian. But not as thick as Marsilia's.

_Which reminds me… _"What's all this about?"

He turned me to face forward, buckled me in and shut the door quietly. (Which I greatly appreciated) Then he appeared in the seat next to me.

I gasped. "For fucks sake!" My voice was horse and raspy. "Could you not do that?"

He ignored that last question. "You are here because your ability has caught the attention of my Mistress."

"Well I'd love to burst her bubble, but I haven't got anything special for her." I coughed and it hurt my chest and made the painful throbbing in my head more intense.

"You can't fool me." He started the bus.

I didn't like it when he used that tone of voice. It had power over me. "It doesn't matter anyways." This next bit was going to tick him off. "It's not working anyways."

I do have an ability. I don't know how it works, though. I seem to be able to duplicate the abilities of others for a limited time, but it's unpredictable. Sometimes I can't control the power I've taken. People get hurt.

"What do you mean it's not working?" He sounded nervous as we pulled out of a parking area and drove down a road lined with towering trees, towards a colossal black iron gate.

"I mean I don't know when it will work and when it won't."

"You're going to have to tell me more than that." He scoffed.

"Bullshit." _What is he thinking? _ "I just laid in the middle of a locker room while your Punk-Bitch friend bludgeoned the fuck out of me!" I turned to look at him, much to my skulls' dismay. "Do you really think I'm gonna sit here and chat with you like we're fucking buddies?"

There was a long pause. He only spoke after we'd passed through the front gate guarding the huge estate we'd just left, and we were cruising through Kennewick. "I didn't mean for you to get hurt." He sighed.

"You didn't stop it either." I snapped. "Where are you taking me?"

"My home." _A crypt, maybe? Doesn't matter. I couldn't get away in this condition if I tried._ "You have to tell me more. My Mistress isn't one to have patience. She wants you. Needs you to use your powers for her benefit. If you can obey orders and use your power the way she wants in one month, you will be disposed of."

"Fuck her." _How did she find me anyways?_

More silence.

He pulled up to a cute little home settled in next to other duplicates that looked just like it. Stefan got out and opened my door for me, and again I didn't see him take a step. He just _was. _He scooped me up, kicked the door shut, and walked to the front door. A young woman answered the door after three rings of the bell.

"Rachael, grab the first aid kit and come to my room." He commanded. She looked at him like she was so happy to see him. But that emotion washed away as soon as she looked to me. Her face twisted into a grimace and she glared.

"Is it a wolf?" She sneered.

"I don't know what it is." He pushed passed her and walked up the stairs, down a hall, and into a massive room.

He laid me down on what I assumed was a bed. I couldn't tell for sure, though. I had decided to keep my eyes closed. My head was throbbing violently now and keeping my eyes open to register everything that was around me only made everything worse.

Rachael walked in soon after he'd laid me down. "Here." She grumbled. I heard something fly through the air and then felt something heavy land next to my feet.

"Thank you. Now go." Stefan told her.

"Why?" She rebelled. I felt her eyes on me.

"Because I told you to." There was that tone again.

She huffed and when I heard the door shut behind her, I asked Stefan, "What's with that?"

"How do you mean?"

"That tone." I winced as he sliced my shirt down its front with something cold and metal and started feeling around on my ribs for breaks.

"Nothing broken…" He whispered to himself. "My apologies." He said to me, sounding sincere. "I don't like to use it."

"Then why?"

"Because I don't know you. Because you could be lying about you ability not working correctly. Because it keeps you in line and unable to use it against me." He started on the snap of my jeans.

I sat up immediately and opened my eyes wide at him. "What the fuck do you think you're doing?" I shouted and slapped his cold hands away.

He stared at me from where he was kneeling beside me. (I noticed that is _was _a bed that I was laying on) "I'm checking your wounds." He informed me matter-of-factly.

"Not down there you're not!"

He ripped open the front of my pants and had them yanked down to my knees before I had a chance to stop him. "Look." He told me.

I stared at him. _At least he didn't take my under wear down, too… _

"Look…"

I looked down and gasped. My hips were adorned with blotches of purple, green and yellow and bright red claw marks racked down my thighs. _How did I not notice this?_ My breathing rate picked up just as my pulse did and I began to cry. "What did he do…" I sobbed. "Tell me what he did…."

He sat up on the bed and I tried to inch away from him but he pulled me close. There was no use fighting him. He was much too strong. "You weren't raped…" He told me, holding me against his chest. "I stopped him before he got that far." He rocked my sobbing, aching body.

_Why am I crying? He just said no one raped me. Aside from a few scratches I'm fine… but why does my heart hurt so much…_

"Why are you taking care of me?" I asked through wet eyes and sore throat.

"Well," He began in a soft, soothing voice. "Your only other options were Andre," I cringed. "And Edwin." I assumed Edwin must be the Englishman. "Terrible options. Trust me when I say that, though Andre has put you in bad shape, you'd be worse off with Edwin. Much worse."

"And with you?" My voice was shaky. Weary.

"With me," He said, using a finger to lift my chin up so that he could look at my sorrowful face. "With me you are safe. I give you my word. And besides, I'd take in any woman who could spit in a Vampire's face, suffer through a beating, and then tell me I'm 'lazy', all in her right mind." I chuckled slightly, which hurt, and he laid me back down.

I let him bandage my wounds and slip me into a change of Rachael's clothes. _Which I'm sure she didn't appreciate._

"Come." He ordered. But not in that tone I hated. He held a hand out to me and I took it. I liked his hands. They were long and strong-looking. Cold and his nails were a little long, yes… but elegant and beautiful none the less. He pulled my arm around his neck and picked me up just as he had earlier and carried me down the stairs again. We passed the kitchen on our way down another hallway and I spotted a glaring Rachael over Stefan's shoulder. There were two other people in there with her. One woman with longish dark hair and a man. I couldn't see him at all, but I heard his voice. It was deep and powerful and I imagined him being a Lumberjack.

He opened a door at the end of the hall that led down a flight of stairs. I looked back into the hallway as we descended and noticed that the walls were blank white and undecorated. _Just like the room he'd bandaged me up in…_ "Where are we going?" I whispered in the darkness of the basement we were in. I was starting to get scared.

"We're going to sleep." He pulled on a light and sat me in a vintage red velvet reading chair that rested next to a sturdy oak table that cradled a large, shiny black coffin.

_Whoa… I'm not sleeping with anyone! _ I told him so and he laughed out loud.

"Of course you aren't going to 'sleep' with me." He scrunched his fingers in the air to make imaginary quotes around the word _Sleep._ "But I'm not letting you sleep alone."

"Why?" I asked, eyeing the coffin with curious eyes. _I'm not really about to get in that with him am I?_ "You don't trust me to defend myself against _Things-That-Go-Bump_?" My voice was thick with sarcasm. Something I used when I was very uncomfortable. _But I guess I use it when I'm feeling fine, too…_

He laughed again, opening his coffin to reveal beautiful black satin sheets and comfy looking cushion. "For now, I'm the only thing that '_Goes-Bump'_ you need to be worrying about." He fluffed the black over sized pillow. "And no… I don't trust you… not yet."

_Not yet? _"Fair enough." I told him. "But you can understand where I'm coming from if I tell you that I'm not about to climb into the tight confines of a _Coffin_ with a dead man who just kidnapped me.

"You have no choice." He declared, teetering on the border of that nasty tone I knew he could use. "It's either this, or I'll have to hand you over to Andre or Edwin."

_Bastard… I was honestly beginning an attempt to get along with him, and he goes and brings that up. _"That isn't fair and you know it." I told him. _This entire situation isn't fair._

He smirked and climbed into the coffin and then gestured for me to follow.

I frowned at him. "My wounds are still healing." I explained. Some of them were raw, even. "I don't want to get in there with you… not when I could start bleeding…"

It was he who frowned this time. "I'm old enough to resist it –" He gave me an embarrassed look that took me a while to understand.

_He didn't know my name. _"Ruby… Ruby Talbot."

He hummed. "That is an interesting last name. Old, too…"

"Not mine. The second Bastard my mother married gave it to me."

"Well then Miss Ruby, I assure you that I mean you no harm. You are safe in here, with me."

"Yes of course, Mr. Vampire." _More sarcasm. _"Of course I will trust _you_, a dead man who kidnaps innocent women and watches as they are beaten." I sneered.

"This Vampire also bandages wounds and stops rapists." He growled harshly.

_He had a point…_ I sighed and stood slowly, wincing at the newly discovered pain in my hips and thighs. Before, I thought they were just sore so I ignored them. But now that I understood the extent of the damage I couldn't move without it burning.

I stood at the edge of the coffin and stared down at him. "I should run." I told him.

"I'll catch you." He rebutted.

I jerked involuntarily at the thought of being chased by a Vampire.

"I'm sorry." He apologized. "I know you don't like me, now, but you'll trust me soon enough." He reached out and grabbed my arm gently. "Tomorrow evening we'll go visit a friend mine—that you greatly remind me of—she will prove that I'm not all bad." He gave me a small smile and I understood that he really was trying to make me feel comfortable. His methods were a little out of whack, but still, he was trying.

I gave up and climbed into his coffin.

"Light. If you'll be so kind." He said softly.

I was sitting on him, straddling his hips. I reached up above us and pulled the light off with the metal chain that dangled down over head. He grabbed a hold of my waist (just above my wounds) and pulled my down to lay on his hard chest. I rested my head under his chin and, with one arm around my waist and one around my shoulders, he said to me, "In a moment I will begin my slumber. After that you won't be able to escape my grasp, so please, get comfortable. You won't be moving until I wake."

I shimmied down a little further and then hummed a signal that meant I was comfy.

"Sleep well…" His voice trailed off and I felt a strange jolt of power flow through me. I tried to sit up and ask what had just happened, but his arms were like iron bars, holding me to him. I guessed what I felt was just him beginning his _'slumber'_.

This situation was uncomfortable, but eventually sleep caught me and I sank into a slumber of my own.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

I awoke this morning (or should I say evening?) with a bitch of a kink in my neck. _Don't believe me? Try sleeping in a cramped coffin with your head turned to the left for hours. Just try it… _"Stefan?"

He hummed in acknowledgment.

_This is a little awkward… _ "Umm… I have to use the bathroom… Can I get up?"

He chuckled one of those bassy rumbling laughs of his. "Yes, of course."

And just like that I was released from his grip. I tried to sit up, but I forgot about the lid of the coffin and slammed the back of my head into it. "Shit!" I cursed at Stefan's chest. The sudden jerk I made upon feeling the pain in my head caused me to remember my other wounds, which started burning.

"Smells like you could use new bandages." He said softly. _Well that's unsettling…_

"Uh, yeah. How 'bout opening this damned coffin?" I snapped. I don't remember the lid squeaking when he opened it last night, but it did just then, and I didn't appreciate the spookiness the sound brought with it. I remembered the light above my head and sat up and searched blindly in the air for the chain. Stefan sat up too and grabbed my hand and repositioned it where I could feel the cold dangling line I was looking for. I pulled it quickly and stared at him. "Shenanigans! I call Shenanigans!"

"What?" He laughed out the word.

"That thing you just did! I call Shenanigans on it!"

"I have no idea what you're babbling about…" He looked at me incredulously.

"You moved my hand to the light string!"

"Yes… I remember…" He raised an eye brow.

"But it was pitch black in here! You can see in the dark, cant you!"

"Oh. That…" He sighed. "Yes, I can see in the dark fairly well."

I glared down at him. I noticed his shoulders were pressing against the side of the coffin and I wondered if he felt cramped or uncomfortable. _I hope so…_ I wished evilly.

"See something you like?" He asked. His voiced teased, but I couldn't help but notice the part of it that sounded serious and inviting.

I wrinkled my nose. "_Hell _no!" I growled. It would have been a perfect last statement before running off to the bathroom, except for when I tried to get out of the coffin my hips burned. The pain made me teeter fall over the edge to my doom. "Damn it!" I cursed, trying to pull myself up.

He appeared in front of me… laughing. He tried to help me up, but I didn't let him. It took me a while to get to my feet. It hurt and it upset him that I would rather injure myself further than take his hand, but I didn't care. I wasn't gonna let him laugh at me and then let him help me off the ground. _No way._

The bathroom was really nice. Huge, in fact. Decorated with browns and maroons and tans and terracotta, complete with a Jacuzzi sized tub that was built into the floor and a cupboard filled with the biggest fluffiest towels on earth. _I've got to use this bath…_ I'm pretty sure it called my name. I yawned great and big and then used the toilette. _What the fuck? _I couldn't find it at first. It was in a little closet looking thing. I guessed it was an attempt to keep that 'business' away from the other 'business'. _Note to self: find another bathroom without a claustrophobic phone booth-sized toilet-box._

When I'd finished my awkward experience in what I now refer to as 'the box', I stood on the edge of the tub, debating rather or not to bathe. I needed it, I knew. After all, I still had blood on me, (which, dried or not, isn't really something I want caked to my skin while I'm staying with a Vampire) my hair still felt sticky from when Andre had bashed my head against the tile floor at work, (speaking of which, shouldn't I have a turban of bandages around my head from that? I woke up this morning with a small head ache. I even hit it on the lid off the coffin. Still I felt only minor pain.) and I just plain old stank. Then again, hot soapy water might not be the best thing for my hips and thighs right now. I looked down at the pink 'Jammies I'd borrowed. Blood seepage from this morning stained the sides. I whisked my shirt off to check on my upper body, not really considering how much it might hurt me, and yipped at the pain.

"What's the problem?" I heard Stefan's voice and then he appeared in front of me.

"AH!" He startled me and I fell backwards.

He caught me and I was grateful for that, but my ribs were not. _Shut up ribs… hitting this bathroom floor would have been a lot worse. _"Sorry…" He apologized, pulling me back to my original balance. He stared down at me for a moment, _Actually a lot longer than a moment, _and I took that time to stare back at him.

He had great hair. Tonight it was pulled back into a loose pony tail at the base of his neck, and all the strands not long enough to stay back were hanging freely around his face. His eyes were black as Midnight, just like his hair. He was defiantly Italian and I could tell that, in life, he'd had a wonderful tan. He was Vampire but, though I'm sure that the skin tone he retained now was most certainly paler than what it used to be, I couldn't help but notice that he wasn't as ghostly-looking and sickly white as the other Vamps. It made him look different than the others. Almost normal. I liked it. He was quite the tall man, standing a good ten inches above my '5''8, and his broad shoulders were handsome and well chiseled. (much like his face)

His charming deep voice interrupted my much enjoyed assessing. "Take your pants off." He ordered.

"What?" I barked, staring at him incredulously.

"I need to tend to your bandages." He clarified. "Take your pants off."

I glanced down at the blood once more, and then back at him. "Oh… right." I shimmied out of the pink P.J.'s and let them fall around my ankles.

He snatched a first aid kit from the bottom of the towel cupboard and knelt before me, stifling a laugh.

"Shut up." I flicked the top of his head.

He chuckled, cleared his throat and started on my bandages. The wounds burned when he started to peel off the old gauze. I tried to look away, but my eyes only found a worse sight. There was a full body mirror mounted on the wall next to us. In it I could see my whole body. My eyes watered and welled with tears at the sight of what Andre had done to me. I'd fucked around and made my hips and thighs worse than they had to be and after a night (or day) of sleep, the bruises on my neck, wrists, ribs and stomach and settled and had time enough to darken into menacing shades of green and violent dark purples.

His hands stilled on my hips once he'd finished. I watched in the mirror as he stood slowly, keeping his eyes on my puffy face, and drew me into a hug. "You should know that Andre didn't show last night because I fought him after I tore him off you." He informed me gravely. "He's angry, Ruby. Very angry. He wants you for himself."

"Why?" I asked. A shiver shot up my spine and my ribs screamed in painful protest when I shook.

"Your taste."

I stiffened. _ Again… that's unsettling... _

"I can protect you from him. I can keep you safe, but for how long, I don't know." He sighed heavily. "If Marsilia doesn't get the results she wants, if I can't report any progress for you, if you don't use your ability and do exactly as I say, then she won't allow me to keep you anymore. She will look to the next Seethe member, which is Andre." He told me.

"Can't you tell her no?"

"She is my maker. Unlike other Vampire, I am not bound to her. I do not have to obey her word, but no one else knows that. She let me continue on when she should have eliminated me after Second Birth. The moment I disobey her, She _will_ kill me."

I stayed quiet.

"That means, no matter how much you hate me and this situation, you must obey me. You must do as I say. You _must _practice this ability of yours or Andre _will _have you. If that happens I can do nothing to save you."

I don't _hate _him. I hated that everything in my life just got shittier. I hated that he had ruined my routine. Disrupted my flow. _But is this any worse than where I was?_ I have no living relatives that I know of. No friends. Not boyfriends. Not even an acquaintance. The closest thing to a loved one I had in that life was Ted. _Isn't that just wonderful? _Now that I think of it, things here with Stefan weren't so terrible. So far he'd taken better care of me than anyone ever has, and I'd only been here for less than a day. Would it be so hard to forget everything from the last nineteen years and just start over?

I stared at our reflection with my cheek to his chest. He was looking off into the distance of some thought behind me, not paying attention to the mirror, so I smiled my best smile. Tried to look happy there, in his arms. _I wonder what it would feel like to love someone… to be loved. Could I love him? Could he love me?_

I sucked in a quick breath, all of a sudden realizing something serious. "Oh shit!"

"What? Did I squeeze you too hard?" he interrogated with a worrisome look on his face.

"Shenanigans! I call Shenanigans!" I shouted.

He took a deep breath and pushed it out loudly as he pinched the bridge of his nose. "What is it now?"

I reached for his chin and jerked his head to face the mirror. "You have a reflection!"

He stumbled around the room laughing harder than any human I'd even known. He was loud and incredibly obnoxious and, a few times, I'd thought he'd finished hooting at me, but it was just him stopping to point at me and continue his hysterics.

"Stop it!" I pleaded. "I'm serious!"

Rachael, the Lumberjack and the small brunette (who was a lot older than I expected and very pale) busted through the door in search of the source of the calamity. They all looked at me and glared, and then the realized that Stefan was laughing… hysterically…

Stefan pointed at me. "She—She says she can see me in the mirror!"

My cheeks hit the floor when I frowned long and embarrassed. They were all laughing at me now.

"Of course you can see me! I'm here, am I not?"

I pushed passed them and journeyed to the living room. I parked on the couch and waited until the chaos subsided and Stefan came out to join me. He was wearing a long black trench coat over a tie-dye t-shirt and the same jeans and shoes from yesterday.

"Rachael's got some clothes for you. Get dressed and lets go."

Fifteen minutes later I was in his driveway about to hop in the Mystery Machine. I took time to examine the interior once I was inside. It looked just as you'd imagine the inside of the Mystery Machine would look. Purple upholstery, with darker purple shag carpeting and lime green light fixtures and other various green doodads the Mystery Machine would have. In the back seat I spotted the big something that he'd moved so that I could have to front seat. It was a life sized stuffed Scooby-Doo. Now _that _was hilarious. A Vampire with a giant stuffed animal that rides around with him everywhere he goes can't possibly be all bad. _Or he could be completely demented… choice is yours…_

He started the bus, pulled out of the drive way and headed towards town.

I was surprised to see that there was a pack of spearmint gum and some old change in the console of the car. It seemed so normal, so human, for those things to be present. Oddly, it made me feel more comfortable to be there with him.

I was wearing a hot pink mini skirt and something purple on top that had sparkly pink butterflies fluttering around on the front. _I'm sure Rachael had a blast picking this out for me…_

"Here's the deal." Stefan began, interrupting my train of hateful thoughts for Rachael. "We're gonna go get you something to eat. Then you should direct me to where you live so you can grab any personal belongings you need. After that I'll take you to meet Mercy. Sound good?"

'_Sounds amazing.'_ My stomach growled.

My last meal was over 24 hours ago. I'd skipped lunch and dinner the day Stefan and Andre had taken me. I guess I thought I'd just eat when I got back to my shitty apartment. _Yeah... That sure worked out just fine and fucking dandy... But it's not like I could afford to eat very often, anyhow..._

"I'd really like that." I told him honestly.

"Alright then." He smiled at me. "What are you in the mood for?"

Just then I could picture me sitting in a dark alley with Stefan, tearing into a huge burger while he fed casually on some poor woman. God only knows why that made me snort.

"Burgers." I told him. "I could destroy a burger right about now."

If there ever was a black sheep in a group of vampire, Stefan has got to be it. All his gentleness and kindness didn't seem like any traits a vampire would have. The look of happiness and joy that Rachael gave him last night seemed out of place. Andre was more of the vampire stereo type, in my opinion. Terrible, evil, a killer, a creator of pain. _Which reminds me…_

"Stefan?"

"Hmm?"

"Why does my head feel fine? Shouldn't I have serious brain damage or something by now?" I looked over to him as he pulled into the parking lot of a quaint little burger shack and found a space to stop the bus.

"Because," he started slowly, after a few silent moments. "I healed you..."

I raised my brow in question.

"You were dying." He continued. "Andre went ballistic after you fell unconscious and—"

"How did you do it?"

"Sometimes my saliva works, but Andre was fixing to explode into a feeding frenzy after he tasted you... If I'd tasted you to we might have killed you together… So I used my own blood."

I grimaced at him. "And that means...what?" _When's the last time your doctor said, "Oh yes, you'll be fine! I used my own blood to cure your head wound!" What the fuck…_

"I poured my own blood into the wound on your head."

"And it healed me?" He nodded as I felt the back of my head where a gash and cracked skull should have felt rough and broken under my fingertips. Instead I felt nothing but the usual flesh and hair "that's pretty incredible, actually. Scary, but very cool." And that was the truth. I wondered what a difference that would make in the human medical industry.

He spoke next as if he could read my thoughts. "Its not incredible enough for my kind to come out to the public, though. I'm trying to find a reason for us to be accepted. Medical assistance is a big possibility for us. Fae and werewolves are no problem, but vampire... We eat people. There's no excuse for our existence unless we can benefit the humans in a major way. But of course, it will be decades, even centuries before I can even think of bringing the topic up with our leaders."

My stomach growled.

He chuckled and appeared on the other side of my door. Of course I had no idea where he'd gone until he opened my door for me.

I yipped. "Jesus Christ, Stefan!" He laughed at me. "I really hate that!"

The inside of the burger joint reminded me of an old fashioned Denny's. Very cute, very cozy and everyone seemed to know everyone else. It was like a home. The food was even better.

I ordered the Jumbo Tri-Cities Burger. It was, "A monstrous pile of meat" as Stefan put it, and it was all gone within minutes.

"Damn…" I growled.

"That good, huh?" Stefan chuckled.

"Damn…" was all I could say.

Our cute little red-headed waitress came to bring us the tab and, after a few sweet words and a wrinkling of her adorable freckled nose, she skipped happily over to another table.

"Ready?" Stefan asked.

I nodded and he paid and escorted me outside.

I sighed a sound of mock sadness once we were back in the car. "I miss my burger…" I laughed.

"I can't stand the smell of those things. I don't understand how you could have eaten something that big either." He looked me up and down. "You're so tiny."

That wasn't true and I told him so.

"Well, you aren't '_tiny' _but you don't look big enough to eat something as massive as that." He corrected himself.

I'm not tiny. I'm '5''8 and I'm in damn good shape. I'm _'skinny'_, that's all.

"Here" He tossed something small and metal into my lap that I recognized as the key to my apartment "it was in your jean pocket."

"Thanks." I told him.

When we were on the road, I managed to give him directions to my ugly age-old apartment complex. The paint was pealing on all of the buildings, making them a sun baked and crackly tan color that was much different from the beautiful spring orange they had been originally. My apartment was on the third floor of building D. _Looks like the Frat Boys came through again…_ I thought as I noticed that the metal plaque that usually marked my apartment as number '267D' was missing. The boys at the local Fraternity liked to take them as a practical joke. It made people who received packages very angry when the UPS man couldn't find their apartment.

I pushed in the key and turned it slowly, listening to the turning and clicking of the contraption that was my dead bolt. The door was always difficult to open. I pushed it once. _Looks like today it's going to be easy._ I rammed my shoulder into it and kicked the bottom until it popped open loudly.  
"It's not much." I told him, turning back to see that he hadn't come in. His eyes were glowing red and his nose was wrinkled. _What the fuck?_ "Uh, Stefan? Your vampire is showing…"

"I cannot enter." He stated roughly.

_Are you fucking kidding me right now?_

"Um… please, come in, Stefan." I tried to say it politely, but I'm not sure it sounded that way.

"My apologies, Miss Talbot." His eyes calmed, _and he put his fangs away_, as he entered. "I did not expect you to cherish this place.

"What do you mean by that? I asked him.

"I thought you were broken." He could see that I still didn't understand. _Broken? What the fuck is that supposed to mean?_ "Most all people that we Vampire take are not attached to anything. No family, friends or lovers. People like that don't usually cherish their homes, allowing me to cross the threshold without problem. To attempt to cross an intact threshold without permission is very painful."

_I guess that made sense._

"What, if I may ask, makes this place important to you still?" He sounded genuinely interested, and I was genuinely pissed the fuck off that he wouldn't think I cherished my home, but then I realized he was right.

The only thing I kept here that meant anything was my mother's class ring. Here, I felt it was safe. _Maybe that's why he couldn't cross, because this apartment is a safe haven for the last peace I have of my mother._

I stood just inches away from where I kept the ring hidden under the floor board. It didn't need to be hidden there, but it made me feel better about its safety, so that's where it stayed. I walked over and lifted up a plank and from beneath the floor I removed a tiny black velvet bag and tossed it to him. He stared at me for a moment, and then at the bag before he opened it. He pulled out a petite silver ring with a black stone in it. I remembered that she'd worn it on her index finger when she was my age and now I couldn't even fit it on my pinky.

"It was my mother's. She's gone now, and this is the only thing I have left of her."

"What happened to her?"

"Her bastard of a husband shot her…" I choked on that last part.

All was silent for a few moments.

"And him?" He inquired.

"I cleaned up that mess…"

I remembered the night I'd killed him. He'd been sitting in his broken lazy boy armchair watching the game the night after he'd killed mom. Her remains were still in the freezer out back. He'd gone in there several times since he'd shoved her in there, to get meat and other foods for dinner, not letting the dead woman that resided there faze him. He was evil, and too long had he watched me. Too long had he eyed me when he should have taken care of my mother. Too long had his lustful gaze fallen upon me and I wasn't about to wait until he took what he wanted. I beat his head in with a hammer that night. I took my mother's body out of the freezer and buried her properly in the back yard and sang a song for her. I never knew the name of it or who sang it. It wasn't even really appropriate for a funeral, but my mother always loved to hear me sing it, so I did.

'_Rose, Rose, Rose, Rose,_

_Will I ever see thee wed?_

_I will marry at thy will, Sire,_

_At thy will._

_Ding Dong, Ding Dong,_

_Wedding bells on an April morn',_

_Carve thy name on a moss covered stone,_

_On a moss covered stone._

_Oh poor bird,_

_Take thy flight,_

_High above the shadows,_

_Of this dark night…'_

I took all the money I could find and left, never to return. I didn't even bother to find out if anyone had found their bodies. I'd given my mother the burial she deserved. That's all the mattered to me.

I gathered all my clothes and things I thought I would need for my involuntary stay with the Vampire. I changed into some black cargo pants, my favorite black and grey stripped tube top (that showed my tummy) and a pair of black flip flops. I snagged my mother's silver class ring from Stefan after washing my hair in my sink and blowing it dry.

"I don't believe it." He mumbled.

"What?"

"How could I have possibly missed _that_?" He pulled me closer to him and dipped me like a swing dancer. He ran a finger across my stomach and laughed quietly to himself. "You'll have to show Mercy your tattoo… You two are going to get along so very well, I can already tell." He lifted me back up and left me.

I pulled my hair back into my signature messy bun, locked my door after I left and followed him back to the bus where I tossed my loot into the back seat. Now we were on our way to see this Mercy woman.

We talked about this friend of his as we drove to see her. Apparently she was a mechanic, she and I were similar and Stefan liked her, _a lot._ He didn't tell me that last part, but the way he spoke of her told me that he must like her as more than just an acquaintance. He proved that theory when we got to her garage.

Mercedes Thompson, at first glance, looked like a regular old brunette. Nothing I thought would catch Stefan's interest. But, as we came closer and I noticed that unique color of her skin and the strong facial features she had, I realized she must be native American. Not like me, though. I'm full blooded Indian. Her skin was lighter than my brownish red.

_Maybe she 's half Indian?_

He didn't talk to her right away. He just stood there in the entry way of the garage, watching her, taking her in and standing the same way he had in the locker room, leaning, arms crossed, gazing through thick lashes. He liked her alright, I could tell.

"Mercy…" He called to her, and in his voice I heard something happy and playful. Of course he'd laughed with me and been kind, but none of that compared to his tone of voice now. It was innocent, inviting.

Mercy looked up from the European car she was reassembling and her reaction to him surprised me. "Stefan!" She said his name like he was a much respected and loved old friend. She stood and pulled a red handkerchief from her pocket and wiped the grease from her hands before coming to throw her arms around the Vampire. "Where have you been? Its great to see you!" He wrapped his arms around her too. She pulled back to see his face. "How's the night life?" She asked him

He let her go and frowned a fake frown. "Not so good, actually."

"Oh? The Ghoulies getting to be too much for those Meddling Kids?" She let him go and stepped towards the old skeletal car to toss her handkerchief down.

_Am I the only one here who doesn't like Scooby Doo?_

"I'm too much for him." I interjected matter-of-factly.

"Are you now?" She looked me up and down, looked to Stefan and to me and back to him again.

He took the hint. "Mercy, I'd like you to meet Miss Ruby Talbot. She'll be staying with me for a while."

"Would You-Know-Who have to do anything with this?"

"Of course she would."

Mercy sighed. "Marsilia is quite the Bitch, Ruby."

"But…" Stefan mumbled.

"But," She continued, "she's quite the powerful Bitch. Tread lightly."

"Also," Stefan was speaking to Mercy, "I thought you might be able to help us."

"With..?"

"Ruby, I need you to tell Ms. Thompson about your ability."

"Um, let me think about it… No." I glared at him.

Mercy looked surprised for a split second and then she looked cool and calm again. "She doesn't smell any different."

"Not to me either. But she's different. I know it." He told her.

"What do you mean I smell different?" I was offended. "and shouldn't there be a rule against telling humans about supernatural things that aren't out to the public yet?"

"You are something special," Mercy began, "Stefan is a Vampire, and I'm no more human than he is. Any secret you have is safe with me?"

I glared at her but before I could say something smart, a black Sedan pulled up beside the Mystery Machine. A muscle man with cropped black hair and tan skin got out of the car and crept into the light. He wasn't extremely tall, maybe an inch or so taller than me, and boy was he handsome.

"Ruby this is my mate, Adam Hauptman, Alpha werewolf of the Colombia Basin Pack." Mercy informed me.

_Well, Miss Thompson you are doing quite well for yourself, aren't you?_

Adam nodded to Stefan and came to shake my hand. "Nice to meet you Miss Talbot." His voice was deep and husky and as he got closer to me I tensed at the feeling that I was engulfed in when he stopped in front of me. It was like he had an aura of strength and power about him, and the closer he got to me, the deeper I was submerged in it.

"And you know my name, how?" it came out snappy and rude, but, considering the sudden stress he put me under, it couldn't really be helped.

He let it go. "Overheard." He pointed up to a camera in the corner of the garage. I soon realized that there were several other cameras hidden in various places as well.

"Yeah… 'Cause that's not creepy at all…"

Mercy laughed. "So what brings you around this time of night?" She asked Adam.

"I saw your guests on the surveillance and just had to come meet Mercy Jr." They all laughed.

"Look at her stomach Adam." Stefan said.

Adam made a small sound. It almost sounded like a growl. I took him for someone who didn't like to be ordered around, but he looked, and when he did he seemed taken aback. "And they've never met ever before?"

"Nope." I said.

"What?" Mercy looked down at my stomach. "Oh, dear god. Girl, you and I are going to be best friends." She unzipped her jumpsuit and pulled it open so that I could see her stomach too. There, under her belly button, was a red paw print that matched my black one exactly.

I burst into laughter. "That's ridiculous!" I sighed with relief and let myself feel comfortable. "So, you known this corpse long?" I pointed to Stefan.

Mercy chuckled, "About ten years or so. He's an old fool, but great company… once you get over the way he travels around…"

"Oh, come now. It isn't that bad." Stefan whined.

"Bullshit." Mercy and I protested simultaneously. We looked at each other a moment and then burst into laughter. "I like her!" we said together, and followed our statement with giggles of explosive proportion.

"You were saying, Stefan," Adam began, gesturing to the cameras again, "that you were hoping Mercy could help you with something…"

"Yes. Ruby, would you be so kind?"

I gulped as the wolf turned his gaze straight into mine. I froze and dropped my eyes, feeling like a rabbit in the presence of… well, a wolf.

"Adam." Mercy growled. "That's not fair."

He huffed an apology and Mercy said something about 'Alphas can't help it' and Stefan appeared next to me and I felt his arm wrap itself around my shoulders. I leaned against him and began my story.

"I have this _ability, _you see… except I didn't know I had it until I was ten and I used it accidently. I can replicate the abilities of others." I looked around waiting for one of then to say something, but when no one did anything I continued on. "When I was ten I went on a field trip to a magic show with my fifth grade class. After all the tricks and music we got to go back stage and meet the magician, who's name I can't recall. I remember shaking his hand and him pulling away from me quickly like I'd harmed him. I felt something at that moment. I felt something coming on, like a wave of power that came from my feet and then pushed its way up and through my hand…" I swallowed hard. "Days later weird things started happening. I would get mad and things would start breaking, glasses would shatter. Things like that. I would get excited and stuff around me, like furniture would start floating around." I sighed. "One day my daddy started beating my mother again. I got really scared. I thought about killing him, about stabbing him with something. Then everything in the kitchen started floating again. Only this time the objects attacked him, killed him."

Adam hummed in acknowledgement. "The magician must have been Fae."

Stefan agreed.

"Are you back to normal now?" It was Mercy.

"Yes… I touched someone human. Felt the same feeling as I did when I touched the magician. I knewfor sure that it was gone when things stopped moving around the house."

"Marsilia ordered Andre and me to kidnap Miss Talbot." Adam's eyes widened and then narrowed into a glare directed at Stefan.

Mercy looked alarmed and shot me a glance that meant, _'Are you alright?_' She looked back to Stefan when I nodded.

"She wants to use her ability for something, but I don't know what. I have a month to help Ruby to control her power and then she will face the chair." I caught a glimpse of Mercy cringing at the word 'chair'. "If I can't show that we've been making any progress, Marsilia will take her from me before a month is out and give her to Andre or someone worse. She needs to practice. I thought that Mercy would be the easiest to practice with."

"Why is that?" Adam sounded irritated.

"She can't take my ability without the possibility of inheriting bloodlust. I won't let her take a wolf's for fear that she won't be able to control the Beast. Mercy doesn't, to my knowledge, have any of the restrictions or barriers that you and I have. She is the safest."

I think everyone agreed on that. Even me. I knew I had to practice my ability if I wanted to stay with Stefan and not be gifted to another, less caring Vampire. I don't know what Mercy is, but they made it sound like the best, less dangerous choice.

"Alright then." Adam agreed aloud. "You can some by my place tomorrow night." He was talking to Stefan. He glanced at Mercy who nodded in agreement. "We'll decide how to proceed from there." He nodded to Stefan and came to shake my hand.

"Thank y—" I couldn't finish. Terror swam through me as a familiar tingling manifested in my toes and swept up and through my arm.

Of all the people in this world I could have duplicated, my power decided to choose the Alpha of the fucking Colombia Basin Pack.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

I felt tired… tired and heavy. I itched everywhere but when I reached up to scratch myself, my arm wouldn't move that way. It was like my bones just all of a sudden couldn't bend that far. I opened my eyes wider and yawned.

_Ouch, I bit my tongue. _ _Why is there hair all over my paws? PAWS? HOLY MOTHER OF ZUES I HAVE A FUCKING SNOUT!_

I jumped up and tried to run, (_the reason for that eludes me)_ and hit something hard and metal that burned through a thick layer of fur on my side and scorched my flesh. I cried out, only it wasn't a cry, it was a howl.

_**Calm yourself. **_A voice told me.

I looked around the metal cage I was in and saw no one. _What? _I thought.

_**I said calm yourself. **_ The voice came again.

_Who's there?_

_**It is I, child. The wolf. Your wolf. Your sister. Your friend.**_

_Sister? I don't have a sister! Who are you!_

_**I told you before, child. I am the wolf.**_

_Then what am I? Why do I have four legs and a snout?_

_**We are us. One. Two in the same. We are the beast. We are the woman. Understand?**_

_Fuck! I'm a werewolf?_  
_**  
We, love. We are a werewolf.**_

_Holy shit! I don't want to be an animal!_

_**Phase, then. Give us the form of the woman.**_

_How?_

_**Concentrate, my darling. Focus the need. Want the Change...**_

It was all so terrifying and, it took a while, but I calmed eventually and tried to focus on being a human. Walking on two feet. I had it. I felt the need to be that other form and I set my mind to it. A shiver shot up my spine and I smelled something odd. Something that wasn't food, but smelled spicy… Then my leg snapped in half.

I yelped a fit of hysterical madness as the rest of my bones began to twist and contort. I felt them growing, pulling apart and stretching. As I moaned a song of agony, I could hear loud footfalls climbing down stairs and bursting through a door.

"She's changing!" I recognized the urgent voice as mercy.

My skin burned like I was submerged in scolding water. I could see the fur on my arms being sucked back under my skin and I could feel my teeth shrinking and growing. My jaws and snout retracted and my human-like teeth realigned. There were a lot more people in the room now, but suddenly I couldn't smell them as well. My vision dulled and my claws and ears shrank down to normal human size and shape.  
I was exhausted, but I couldn't lie down and rest now. In the room were Mercy, Adam, and three others I didn't recognize. Everything was wrong. Everything was insane right then and I had no idea what to do accept for some instinct at the back of my head that shouted out an order. So, I listened.

I screamed at the top of my lungs. It was one of those horrific blood boiling shrieks of terror you only hear in the best of horror films. "STEFAN!"

And then he was just 'there', standing at the far end of the room like he'd always occupied that space. He looked ghastly. Eyes glazed over and grey looking. Hunched over and shoulders drooped, fangs out and talons sharp.

"You were sleeping..." I whispered. I didn't even think he'd hear me.

"Was." Apparently he had.

"Where am I? Who are they? What's happening to me?" I shouted frantically.

He straightened himself out, retracted all his sharp doodads and put on a small black pair of sunglasses that he pulled from a pocket of his jacket. "You're in Adam's basement and have been sleeping for two days. The strangers are Bran, Charles and Anna Cornick, and you, Ruby, have duplicated Adam's wolf."

_**Not Adam's. We are our own.**_

"What?" I asked the voice in my head.

"I said—"

"Not you Stefan..."

_**Let me have a word with them.**_

"She wants to talk to you." I told them all.

"Who?" It was Adam.

"Sister wolf." The deep voice came from the huge Indian standing by the door. He pushed a long black braid off his shoulder and stalked majestically over to where I crouched naked in the cage. "Show her to me." His words were kind and gentle, but behind them laid a demand so powerful I had no choice but to obey.

"They say it is alright." I told the voice.

_**You must calm yourself first.**_

"How can I be fucking calm at a time like this!"

Adam growled at my use of profanity and the wolf growled right back at him, a menacing sound that should never escape a human throat.

I covered my mouth immediately and spoke through clasped fingers. "I'm sorry..." I whispered.

_**Take a deep breath and let me take over the Woman.**_

"Okay." I breathed deeply and relaxed. I felt my spine shiver again and smelled that same spicy scent as before. Then everything went black. 

**(Stefan's P.O.V.)**

Her body convulsed and then lay limply in the cell for all of thirty-two seconds. During which I couldn't help but notice the urgency with which I wanted to run to her. The same oddness I felt that woke me from my slumber and brought me to her. The same pain I had felt as I watched Andre mangle her. I am Vampire. He who walks the streets at night searching for his pray. I am the_ Soldier_. Mortals fear me in their worst of nightmares. I can spare the humans I live with. I can keep them ignorant of the beast that I am, but what of Miss Talbot? Why did I feel obligated to save her from Andre, to claim her as my own? We are not bound and still I come to her call. Her voice wakes me from my sleep and into the dangers of the day.

She sat up and heaved a sigh of relief. Her eyes shown an unnatural sapphire blue and she growled.

"Ruby?" Anna whispered.

"No, Omega. I am called Domina The Centurion. Warrior of Rome. Someone please explain why I have been awakened."

_This isn't what I expected... _

She stood and her long gorgeous hair fell upon her naked body in disarray.

"The girl tells me the year is 2010 A.D. My human was killed centuries ago and yet here I am, tied to this Ruby Lee Talbot. How can this be?" She was addressing Charles; her voice was strong and powerful. Dominant. Warrior-like indeed.

"Okay, so I guess it's safe to say that this isn't Adam's wolf." Mercy announced. "Domina, huh? That's a girl's name. You were a woman in your former life?"

"I was. Now I am again."

_Defiantly not Adams…_

"So," Anna began. "When Ruby 'Duplicated' Adam," She made finger quotes around the word, "she didn't duplicate him specifically, just his species? But where did she come from?"

Domina grunted. "From the Underworld."

_How pleasant…_

"Domina." The strange wolf growled at the Marrok. She didn't like being Called. "Ruby has an ability I am unfamiliar with. She seems to have the power to clone, or copy, the abilities of others and use them as her own. She accidently copied our Adam, here, but took another wolf."Bran decided. "She wasn't Changed, therefore, she couldn't create a wolf of her own. Why she chose you I do not know."

"Because we are the same, I assume." Domina replied. "In her I see great potential. A hunger for war. A craving for battle and for carnage and superiority that is comparable to my own. She and I are very much alike, more so than my first human. I like her. I intend to keep her." Her words sounded final.

"And what does Ruby have to say about this?" Adam, who had been standing on the side lines, finally spoke up.

"She isn't completely sure how she feels about the situation, but as of now she has no intention of ridding herself of me." Domina informed.

"Truth." Announced the Marrok.

"May I speak with her?" I asked Domina.

She turned her gaze to me and her eyes widened. She cocked her head to the side wolfishly and grinned like the great predator she was. "Mine…" She growled and pried apart the silver bars that imprisoned her like they were no more than the twigs of a stick house.

The Marrok jumped in front of her as she stepped out of the cage and she stared him down. "You dare challenge me, Bran Cornick?"

A menacing snarl ripped from the Marrok's throat and then, to my astonishment, he dropped his eyes.

_Good God in Heaven…_

He stepped aside and watched her like a hawk with a grudge as she passed him and made her way too me. I wanted teleport. I could feel the dominance and power rolling off of her and it got stronger and thicker as she came nearer. I stayed there, though. I couldn't run from a creature like that. I don't stand a chance against the Marrok. How can I possibly face off with one who can stifle him with just a stare?

She walked ever so slowly and stopped directly in front of me. "Mate…" She told me. "Mine…"

She reached up to grab me, letting each one of her fingers fall upon the back of my neck one after the other, and pulled me down so that she could give me a soft peck on the lips. Though I did not kiss her back, I have to say I appreciated that kiss. I might even have enjoyed it.

_Yes, that's it… I enjoyed it…_

"How handsome you are." She whispered against my lips.

If I were human, I'd have shivered just then. _How curious this is…_

"Ruby's made an excellent choice, don't you think, Vampire Stefan?"

I was going to answer her, with what I don't know, but it didn't matter for she started talking again and, to Ruby, I assumed.

"Shut up girl!" she hissed. "I know what you want, I can see it as clearly as you can…No time for modesty now, we've already kissed him…Yes we have and we're nude, too…Oh, you don't do you?... Well, then, why don't you just ask him yourself?" She kissed me again, quickly but longer than she had before, and nipped at my bottom lip before going limp in my arms.

I caught her with one arm around her waist and the other cradling the back of her head. I looked at her then, really looked at her. She was truly beautiful. Her skin was reddish-brown and smooth as silk. Her face was a brilliantly sculpted as her perfect full lips, round and pouting. The forbidden softness of her chest was covered by long, swirling locks of brunette hair through which I could not see. _I don't think I've ever known a Native American to have such pretty curling hair._ My eyes wandered across her belly and down to her paw print tattoo, but no lower. My chivalry would not allow it. She gasped in my arms and I looked into her eyes hoping that it would be Ruby I held and not the warrior.

**(Ruby's P.O.V.)**

_Fuck, am I tired. What was that crazy bitch saying about Stefan? Oh damn it…_

I opened my eyes to find Stefan looking straight at me. He was holding me, in fact, and I was very, very naked. I shrieked and he dropped me. I fell to the floor in front of him and tried to cover myself as best I could.

As I scrambled, he took off his trench coat and knelt to wrap it around me. "You look exhausted." He stated.

"I am. Very." I sighed.

He made a noise that almost sounded like a laugh. "It's almost noon. Come, let us sleep." He swept me up into his arms again and walked towards the door. I kept my face hidden from the others. I was too embarrassed look at them.

When we left the room, he kicked the door shut behind him and I snuggled into his chest. Now, even though I wasn't the wolf, I felt like my senses were better than before. Stefan smelled amazing. Like cologne and popcorn. The good buttery kind. When we'd conquered the stairs and exited the stairwell, Stefan carried me through a huge home, up a flight of stairs, and into an empty bed room. I noticed that all the windows and blinds were shut, but that he shied away from the spots where light could still shine through on our journey through the house. This room, however, let no light into the room. The duct-taped windows made sure of that.

He set me down next to the king-sized bed and began pulling at the jacket he'd lent me. I held it tight and pulled it around myself, glaring at him.

He glared right back, a warning that I'd better obey him, so I let him do as he pleased. I was weary at first, as he stripped me of the jacket and tossed it into the chair across the room. His intentions became clear, though, after he took his t-shirt off and slipped it over me.

_How sweet… _I thought as I stuck my arms through the arm holes.

He climbed under the covers and scooted all the way over to the other side of the bed before saying, "Come. It's getting early."

I obeyed him, climbing under the navy blue comforter as well. He laid there and closed his eyes and I pulled the cold sheets up to my nose and stared at him.

"What?" He'd felt my gaze and opened his eyes to me again.

"Um… C-can I sleep next to you?" I whispered in the dimness of the room.

_Shit. I sounded like a two year old…_

He turned onto his side, reached over to grab my hip and pulled me across the bed and against his chest. I snuggled down into the covers and nuzzled my head against his chest. I don't know what he thought of that, but I didn't care. I was comfortable and I was enjoying myself. Until he embarrassed me, that is…

"She called me her mate…" He spoke of the wolf. "Said you chose me. Is that true?" He asked, his voice hushed and gentle.

I thought for a moment. "yes…" was all I could manage.

"When?"

"When we hugged in your bathroom the night you took me to see Mercy." I mumbled.

"But why?" He pulled away and looked down into my face.

I gulped. "Well, I know you and I are going to be together for a month, and after that, if I please your Mistress, we might be together for longer than that. I have no one, Stefan. No one. If you are going to play such an important role in my life, and you are going to be with me most of the time, then maybe I can love you… and maybe, one day, you can love me too." I sighed heavily and to myself I said, "God, it would be so nice to feel what it's like to be loved… even if it's only for a moment."

I had to look away from him after that. I sounded pathetic and childish… but I was telling the truth. He had to know that.

"I understand your meaning completely." He sighed. And then he kissed me deeply, wrapping his arms around me and rolling on top of me, engulfing me in his body, his scent.

I reached up to wrap my arms around his neck as his tongue entered my mouth to probe and play with mine. But it ended all too soon. As is happened, I wished I knew what I was doing.

_It's one thing to want something. _I thought. _But it's another thing to get it._

I was confused, but not enough to stop, and when he ended that kiss I was so disappointed…

_But why the disappointment? I wanted him, but I didn't know him… not at all…_

"Stop." He whispered. "Not here. Not now."

Startlingly, the wolf whined. Stefan kissed me quickly and told me, "Now we must sleep, we'll talk more on this in the evening."

And then we slept…


	5. Chapter 5

_**AUTHORS NOTE:**_

_**So, if you haven't noticed already, Andre is still alive in this FanFic when he should have perished in his suburban underground resting place. I just really liked his character, thought it would be interesting to add Ruby Talbot to the 'REASONS WHY ANDRE AND STEFAN NO LONGER GET ALONG' list and decided to keep him. So, I guess just imagine a world where Andre never died.**_

_**P.S.**_

_**I am now taking requests for 'One Shots' of any characters from 'The Mercy Thompson Series' and 'The Alpha & Omega Series' so just message me what characters you'd like to see in a 'One Shot' and I'll write it.**_

_**Love the reviews and messages. Keep 'em comin' !**_

_**(also, sorry in advance for this Chapter… I promise Chapter 6 will be juicier that this one… [insert smiley face here])**_

_**-SheWhoRunsWithWolves-**_

Chapter 5

I woke in the evening, alone in a cold bed. I could hear the low hum of voices coming from somewhere downstairs. I yawned and listened hard, trying to make out syllables and sound and words.

"I can't have a lone wolf on the loose who can overthrow me." It was Bran.

"There has to be another way." Stefan offered.

"She could get rid of the Lycanthrope ability." Came Mercy's voice. "She can just duplicate me."

'_**No! How dare they try to destroy me!' **_The wolf roared in my head. Strange how I quite enjoyed hearing her there. Knowing that someone was with me almost seemed to heal the lonely scar I carry.

'_Sister…' _I thought to her. That's who she was. My sister. My kin. Last night her presence was alien to me, something that should never be. Tonight, her voice seemed natural, soothing, almost. It was then that I felt like never letting her go. She was a part of me. I loved her.

"How do we know she will not ever turn Wolf again?" Bran enforced. "You saw what happened. All of you did. If she decided to take a life, it would fly by with no consequences. She is much too dangerous and must be taken care of."

"I agree with the Marrok."

Stefan hissed, followed by a loud crash and grunting.

"Adam!" Mercy shouted.

'_**They plot against us, you see, child?**_

'_Stefan would never let it happen…'_

'_**He is out-numbered, my sweet.' **_

"It's for the good of all." Adam grumbled through what I imagined was an attempt to restrain Stefan.

'_**Do you want to keep me?' **_Domina asked me.

'_Yes… Of course…'_

"No it isn't, not for her!" A feminine voice I assumed to be Anna's wailed. "She's just a girl! Why can't she just join Adam's pack?"

"How do you intend to kill her, anyhow? You can't even look her in the eye!" Mercy's voice was as menacing as it could possibly be.

'_**Then let me out again.' **_The wolf's voice promised bloodshed and pain.

'_Not if you are going to kill. I can't let you hurt anyone…'_

The wolf growled in protest, but this is a body and a mind that we both shared and I'd be damned if I didn't get a say in what we did with it. Funny how I was so calm and comfortable with her.

'_**Fine.' **_She grumbled.

So, I let her have the Woman.

_**(Stefan's P.O.V.)**_

I felt a wave of magic topple over me as I struggled to free myself of Adam's grip, my face pressed to the wall, Adam locked around my body trying to squeeze the living death from me.

'_Domina is with us.' _I thought.

I wished he would keep on. I wished that Domina would find him on me like he was and rip him to shreds. Fortunately for him, Mercy means too much to me to let her do that. Losing that beast would break her heart, so I asked him, "Do you want her to see you doing this to me? Do you wish to die?"

His hands stilled at my words. He growled a sound of defeat and took his weight off of me abruptly. Then he released my arm and retracted the palm that pressed my cheek into the wall.

The smell of Domina had me appearing next to her, ready to defend her. "Good evening." I greeted her, cautiously taking my eyes off the others in the room.

Her eyes were glowing, her nose was wrinkled up to her forehead and the white bed sheet from last mornings resting place was wrapped around her like a true roman toga. It suited her. "Who dares to challenge me?" She roared.

I reached over and took her skinny wrist in my hand as the Marrok stood from where he sat at Adam's dining table. "We will work this out." I told them all.

"We'd better." Anna growled from the couch across the wide open space and in the living room where she and her mate, Charles, perched.

"The Omega is right." Domina agreed.

"And we will do this how, exactly?" Charles sighed.

"I am not an unfair man," The Marrok began, "and I am not impatient. If we can come to some sort of agreement here, we may find that we will have no need to eliminate you."

"Eliminate me? I would destroy you before you had a chance, Wolf." She told him.

Charles jumped to his feet and the Marrok silenced his growl with a look.

"Unfortunately, It won't happen." She continued placing a strong, possessive hand over mine. "Not while you have what I want." She looked straight at me.

'_Mate…" _Her words replayed in my mind. _'Mine…'_

"Domina." I spoke softly. "He is Marrok, Alpha of all Alphas. He is law."

"He is no law of mine." She bit out the words harshly.

"Exactly." I agreed sourly. I knew what would happen if she did not obey the Marrok. I also knew that this, 'Domina' would not lie down and play submissive. She's too old and proud a wolf to do such a thing.

Her face softened to mush and her shoulders drooped. "You want me gone, too, then?" She almost looked devastated.

"Of course not." I couldn't keep myself from assuring her and rubbing her delicate, yet capable, wrist between my thumb and index finger.. "But I cant stop them if they decide that you are too dangerous." My hand caressed her cheek, then. It wasn't a gesture I should have made but, like the kiss just last night, I had to do something to keep the wolf from lashing out. It was just a precaution. Nothing more.

'_Right'. _I told myself. '_Nothing more than a precaution. A deed necessary to keep Marilia's plan on its course... but why do I enjoy it so?' _

Though I knew in my cold, black heart that most of what I did to comfort Ruby, I did because I wanted to, I had to stay on track and do only what was necessary to keep her in line and interested.

"So, If I promise to behave, I may stay with you, yes?" She asked.

I glanced around at the rest of the wolves, on edge and tired. They did not seem to disagree, but then what could they do right this moment anyhow? Even if they decided she _is _too dangerous, taking her out now would be an unsuccessful task. They would need help. A lot more help. "Yes." I assured her. "For now. Now give Ruby back to me so that we can speak with her."

She looked around to the wolves and then turned to the table and smiled at me sweetly. I sat down when she gestured to a seat and soon she was curled up in my lap and the strong pungent scent of her magic faded away.

_**(Ruby's P.O.V.)**_

I sucked in a quick, loud breath when I realized I was in control again.

'_Thank you, Sister…' _ I told Domina, and she acknowledged me with a soft, soothing groan.

The groan could have been me, though, because I soon understood that I was in Stefan's lap and… "Stefan…"

"Hmm."

"You aren't _petting _me, are you?"

He didn't make a sound, but I knew he thought that was funny because his chest vibrated.

"Ruby." Adam began sternly. "Domina—"

"I know." I interrupted. "She's going to obey the Marrok. She isn't lying, you know."

"Yes." He agreed.

Everyone was sitting around a massive oak table in the middle of Adams dining room. I climbed from Stefan's arms and into the empty seat next to me. I looked around at every beast seated at the table and then back to Adam and the one called Marrok, who were both seated directly across the table from me.

"What does that mean, exactly?" I asked them.

"Female wolves aren't supposed to be even close to as dominant as yours is." Adam said.

"And on top of that," The Marrok interjected. "She is much older than me. As long as she is an Ally, we can allow her to live until we decide what to do with her. Otherwise she must be destroyed."

_How do they plan to do that? Gulp… _"I see."

"Yes. Now, If you are going to be a wolf, there are some rules you are going to have to abide by." The Marrok gestured to Adam.

Mr. Hauptman cleared his throat. "I am going to be your Alpha for now. That means that, in the Colombia Basin Pack, I am the highest ranking authority. All obey me, including you." He paused, waiting for me to take in all of the new information.

I nodded at him. _'Does he think I'm stupid?'_

'_**No.' **_My sister told me. _**'He is an Alpha. One with excellent control, I see. We don't have to like him, but we must respect him. An Alpha with control is a blessing.'**_

"There is a chain of command that continues throughout the pack. The most important are my First and Second." Adam continued. "You'll meet Daryl and Warren soon.

"So what am I?" I wanted a rank too.

"You are the lowest." He told me matter-of-factly. "Females take their rank from their mates. Unmated females are at the very bottom of the food chain, where you are.

I didn't like that one bit and neither did my Sister.

Adam's eyes wandered over to Stefan and lingered there, full of hatred and loathing. I growled at him (or Sister did, I don't know which) and his eyes snapped back to me.

"Once you are inducted into my pack more formally, Miss Talbot, I won't allow you to get away with such disrespect." His eyes were shimmering and yellow.

After Stefan drove us home that night, he hardly said a word to me.

"Don't tell anyone about your wolf. I'm sure _She_ has spies watching us so don't do anything rash. Backpack's in the guest room." He mumbled then disappeared to the Basement, I assumed, after adding, "We'll sleep in an hour."

_Okay, Grumpy-Pants McGee…_

I stomped into the guest room where he'd bandaged me the first night I'd come here and plopped onto the little twin-sized bed. Spotting my black bag in the corner of the room, I growled, not wanting to stand again to get it. So, I crawled. I'm sure I looked pathetic, rolling off the bed and to the bag like I did. I sat Indian style in front of it, (Ha. Indian style…) and dumped everything out on to light blue carpet. Surprisingly, the outside of the bag was clean, and it smelled like Fre-Breeze. I assumed Stefan had cleaned it. It must have been covered in blood after the beating I'd taken. Inside were my ugly uniform articles and a pair of old black leather shoes that Ted had always insisted I wear.

"_It makes you look more professional." _He'd tell me in his rough smokers voice when I complained. I'd always thought they made the outfit less appealing.

There wasn't anything else inside, really, just some old scraps of paper and a broken pencil. Nothing accept for the pink cosmetic bag I'd forgotten about that hid underneath a clump of old power-bar wrappers and an empty RedBull can.

I pulled the tiny purse out and sat it on my lap. It was smooth and shiny like bubble-gum satin and had Maroon stitching. I unzipped it and stuck a hand in to feel the square sweets that I kept there. My mother had always loved Starburst's. The light pink one's. I liked to keep a bag of them with me just in case I ever felt scared, lost or alone. Sometimes I ate one to help myself calm down. Sometimes the smell of them was all I needed to remember her and feel safe again..

I pulled out a square of chewy pink sugar and took my time unwrapping it. I folded the wrapper into a tiny origami heart and stowed it away inside the secret little inside zipper pouch of the purse before taking a small bite of my candy. As I nibbled at the corner I began to sob. I didn't want Stefan or anyone else to hear my crying so I held in my tears. I didn't want anyone to come in right now. This was a private moment.

'_I miss you Mom… I miss you so much, you have no idea…'_

I was glad that Domina had decided to stay quiet. My throat burned like I'd swallowed an oversized bite of spicy food and the edges of my eyes throbbed. I needed something to do that wasn't sitting here, wallowing in my own sadness.

I put my things away, remembering my other bags Stefan's van, and slipped back into the shoes I'd toed off next to the front door. I snagged the keys from the crystal dish on the counter where Stefan had laid them to rest earlier, and strode outside. My bags from my apartment were still in the back seat of the Mystery Machine where I'd left them. I was hauling them out and planning on bringing them inside when I felt the presence of someone behind me.

'_**Vampire…'**_

I spun around and met the eyes of a very tall and very scary Englishman. I dropped my bags and backed up against the van.

'_Now wound be a great time to pull a knife from somewhere… and also some super speed would be great… and strength… God damn it.'_

'_**Child,' **_Domina laughed. _**'What do you take us for?'**_

I felt my nails grow out long and a rush of adrenaline and courage surge through me. As if it was instinct, I lashed out at him, raking claws across his left cheek. He had tried to jump back but I'd cut him even before he'd had the chance to stop smirking. His grin disappeared and he looked at me incredulously.

Sniffing the air he said. "You're a mut? How?" He growled.

"Come here, blood bag!" I shouted, only it wasn't really me who said it and before I had a chance to consult My Sister, she'd already taken the Woman from me.

_**(Domina's P.O.V.)**_

I crouched over the Rabbit. "This is a warning for you and anyone else from your damned Coven who thinks they might want to oppose me." I wiped his blood from my mouth and felt it smear across my face. The blood I'd taken from the gory bite in his neck. "Also, you let the one called Andre know that The Centurion hunts him." I told him as he choked and gargled on the death that oozed and bubbled from his neck and throat.

I didn't want to get up just then but I did. I let him run free and watched as he limped and stumbled down the street, around the corner and off to where ever he slept. It took all of my strength to release the first meal I'd caught in over a millennia, but I knew that patients would bring me plenty of new meat. Plenty of enemies that my Mate and the wolves would be happy to let me devour and shred to pieces.

'_We can't kill anyone…' _

'_**Silence.' **_I growled at her, my Sister. _**'We are one, now. For you, I let this weakling go free. For you I do not slay at random as I would like to. For me you will stand back while I destroy those I am allowed. Deprive me of bloodshed and I will take you as I have tonight and I'll not soon give you back. Not even to our precious Stefan.'**_

She didn't say more, so I continued back into the house grabbing the bags of ridiculous worldly things that she had attempted to retrieve. Back inside my Mate's home, I set out to wash. Sister helped me to understand the absurd knobs and dials of the tub, and I stripped and relaxed into the scolding water.

_**(Stefan's P.O.V.)**_

I heard the bath water start and immediately thought of Ruby. I teleported to the bathroom to make sure that everything was safe and was startled when I realized that the bathroom was stuffed with a think pudding of steam that even _I_ couldn't see through. Then I smelled her.

"Domina?"

"Hello, Stefan…" She said smoothly.

I heard her stir, followed by the soft trickling of warm water. Swatting at the steam as if it would help clear it away, I moved towards the tub. Soon I could see that she was completely submerged accept for her arms, head and shoulders and had her back to me. Her long hair was twisted into a thick trailing braid that snaked out, swirling across the bathroom floor from her head that rested on the edge of my bathtub. I walked around the edge of the tub that was filled to its brim so that I could face her.

'_No bubbles…'_ I thought, looking down at her naked body.

The trickling sounded again as she lifted her arms and turned them slowly as she washed them with a white cloth and lathering soap. I noticed that the water was a soft rosy pink and smelled slightly like blood. When my eyes focused more in the steamy room, I realized that it wasn't hers. Domina's mouth was covered and smeared with blood that had dripped and run down her chin, neck, chest and down into the water.

"Jesus Christ, what did you kill?" I asked her in the tone I know Ruby hates.

"Calm yourself, Stefan. That magic wont work on me." She said, an awkward playfulness surrounding her.

"What did you kill?" I hissed through me teeth. If she decided to kill a neighborhood pet, Adam would be furious. That man angers me too much to have barking up my tree all day. I'd kill him, Mercy's Mate or not, if he gave me anymore hell.

"You mean 'Whom'."

_Damn it…_

"And I didn't take his life… or his death, rather…"

"That's Vampire on your lips!" I roared, furious that she would even think about doing such a thing. "I told you not to do any thing ra—"

"You told Ruby. And besides, we might not be alive still if I hadn't defended us from that English bastard."

"Edwin…" I calmed and took a deep breath. _'So, it was self-defense…'_

"There was another too, but it did not show its face. Just watched."

"So now Marsilia knows about you." I sighed. I'll be hearing from her soon, now. _Not something anyone really want's…_

"So, she knows…"

Her uncaring for this serious situation made me angry but what could I do? Not even the Marrok can make her obey with force and will.

'_Wait, who was the only one capable of putting the Marrok in his place before?' _I thought for a while. _'His Mate…' _

It was farfetched but I'd give it a shot. I lashed out at her. Tried to scare her and show her who was in charge… I ended up underneath her in the tub with a busted lip…

She straddled my thighs and had her hands clasped around my neck. I held my hands in the air, showing her that I knew I'd been beat and she was laughing. She let me go, slowly, reached for the cloth on the side of the tub and used it to wash away all of the blood on her skin. Tossing the wash cloth over her shoulder, she sank down lower into the water and laid her head down on my chest.

"I _will _have you." She informed me, wrapping her arms around my bare waist. "As soon as Ruby is relinquished from her insufferable modesty and confusion I will take you."

'_How would I say __**no**__ to you anyhow?' _ I thought.

"Make no mistake, Vampire. Ruby is young and naïve but she knows what she wants. She's interested in you and I know that you want her, too, even if you won't completely allow yourself to see it."

She was silent for a while before her body went stiff.

"Fine." She wasn't speaking to me. "But I must warn you, it is a new found pleasure of mine to leave you in the most uncomfortable positions I possibly can… and I'll tell you, Girl, that your modesty makes it so very easy to put you in uncomfortable places." She laughed evilly and then the spicy bite of magic was no more…


	6. Chapter 6

I was in control again and, like that last time my Sister had taken control of the woman, she left me somewhere all too close to Stefan in my birthday suit. This time, however, Stefan was almost equally as nude, wearing only a pair of black boxer-briefs to cover himself.

'_He saw me… He must have…'_

I felt a mixture of humiliation and shame wash over me as I gathered my chest into my arms and curled up into his wet chest so that he couldn't see the rest of me.

"Damn you, Domina…" I hissed through clenched teeth. I swallowed. "How much did you see?" I asked him, my voice cracking embarrassingly.

He seemed reluctant to answer me. "Most of you."

"Get out…" I ordered him.

He sighed. "Ruby, I—"

"Get. Out. Now." I growled.

"As you wish…" And then he was gone.

I wobbled slightly at the absence of his body beneath mine. The water under me swirled and splashed violently, rushing to fill the empty space that had only seconds ago been filled. I didn't want to go to the basement so soon. Didn't want to see his face until I'd gotten rid of more of my shame and nervousness. I breathed deeply several times before inhaling, holding my breath and plunging myself to the deep depths of the huge tub. The water surrounded me as I sat there on the bottom of the tub. My hair snaked and swam in loops and squiggles around my body and it felt good feeling the strands of hair spinning and licking playfully against my back. It was relieving to rid myself of the weight of my thick, heavy brunette mane. I loved the water, for it was soft, soothing and absolutely silent.

When I did finally get out, wrap up and sprint to the guest room, I threw on Rachael's pink P.J.'s and journeyed to the basement. Cautiously, I opened the door and ventured down the stairs. The light was on and when I entered the hollow of the basement, I found Stefan sitting in his reading chair… waiting for me. It looked like he'd decided to throw on some baggy blue pajama pants and, hopefully, a dry pair of underwear.

"Ruby," He said, standing and turning towards me, his eyes at the floor. "I apologize for earlier." He lifted his hand in a way that seemed like he was literally giving me an apology. Seemed really odd if you thought about it, but the way he did it made it normal, natural, innocent and almost expected.

"Don't be sorry." I told him. "It wasn't your fault, I'm sure…" I'd heard bits of the conversation between him and Domina. She'd misbehaved and then put me in that situation on purpose. Nothing to blame Stefan for.

"But I saw you."

"She didn't try to cover herself, did she? She's an old Roman. I can't expect modesty from her." That was true… I think… I knew Roman soldiers weren't modest but I don't know about women warriors…

'_and is there even such a thing as a female warrior of Rome? Well, Domina says there is, so…'_

"I didn't look away…" He lifted his eyes to mine and held them there.

I shook my head. "I'm not talking about this now. It's going to be too damned hard to get into that coffin with you if you keep this up." I strode to the big box and waited for him to get in first.

So, he didn't look away. It ticked me off and embarrassed me further, but what could I do? She left my body exposed and laying in front of a man. If he looked I can't hold it against him.

'_Actually I could… Jesus could I give him hell about it… but this particular situation made me upset, so he'd get off easy this time…'_

He appeared in the coffin and reached up to pull the light off. I stood there in the dark knowing he could see me and not wanting to feel my way into the coffin and look like idiot in front of him. He ended up scooping me into the coffin and shutting it without a word.

_Without a word until I socked him in the chest that is..._

"What was that for?" He grunted uncomfortably.

"Next time you'd better warn me before you decide to yank me around in the dark." I told him roughly.

He stayed silent and I assumed it was because he stood corrected. Then we slept just as we had the first might I'd been with him, though my head was turned to the right this time, of course.

The next evening we went to Adam's house. Stefan said something about a formal initiation into the pack might not work for me and that he needed to see Adam about it. I met Adam's First and second in command, Warren and Daryl, just as Adam said I would. Daryl wasn't all that great. He was dull and had no sense of humor. The only thing I liked about him was the fact that he made Adam look about as tall as Stefan's stuffed Scooby-Doo.

'_I whispered that to Stefan, who cracked up and whispered it to Mercy, who's whispering to Warren was overheard by Adam, who growled at us all and sent Daryl out of the room…'_

Warren, on the other hand, was WAY cool. Apparently, werewolves are immortal and Warren was turned Wolf in his day, a century or so ago, when he was a real live Cowboy. Complete with an amazing southern drawl, authentic Cowboy boots, button-up flannel shirt and Extra-Blue-Levi's, Warren takes the cake. _(Flaming-Lawyer-Boyfriend sold separately…)_

Adam, Warren, Mercy, Charles, Anna, Stefan and the Marrok all left me upstairs to myself while they went down to Adam's safe room to discuss things.

'_Psshhh… This is so much fun…not…'_

I had been flopped on Adams loveseat and was waiting for the beasts to stop bickering in the basement when I heard an ancient truck pull up to the front of the house. Heavy boots crunched through gravel and stomped up the front steps, paused to scrape themselves clean and then entered. I saw the back of a man's head as he strolled through the door. When he turned to face me my breath caught in my throat.

'_He looks like Edwin…'_

My nose, however, assured me that he wasn't, for he didn't have that yucky musty smell about him that came from Marsilia's stone room . I felt relieved almost as instantly as I'd been afraid. He'd smelled my fear, though and his raised eye brows and cocky smile told me he enjoyed it.

He went to the fridge and pulled from it a brown glass bottle before coming to collapse on the couch that faced mine. "So," He began, cracking his beer open and chugging down a few gulps, "who's Bitch are you?"

'_An English accent, too? Yeah… 'cause that doesn't make me uncomfortable…'_

I scoffed and sat up. "Don't you have a tree to piss on?" I asked just as casually as he'd insulted me. I couldn't hide the smile that spread across my face after I spoke.

'_Yup, that was a good one.' _I added a tally to _my_ side of the scoreboard.

'_Tie game.'_

He glared at me and then returned to his smirk, throwing his feet up on the table. "You must be Ruby, then. Mercy's told me about you."

"Yeah, well, you must not be very important. No one's told me about _you._"

'_Another point for me.'_

He laughed. "Oh, you hear of me soon enough, Whore."

'_Enemy point…_ '

He changed to an American accent then. "_'Oh, Ruby, don't you hang around that Ben, he hates women._'"

Then he spoke in such a way that reminded me of Adam. "'_He's dangerous, Ruby. No good._'" He chuckled. " And you'll most likely hear, '_He's a rapist. Avoid him_.' Or, '_Don't trust him, he only cares about himself._'"

"I'm sure the rumors are true, then. You _do_ seem like the 'Self-loving, stank-apartment-renting, rapist ' kinda guy."

'_Ruby's point.'_

He threw his head back and laughed out loud. "Hell, you remind me of Mercy! Well, aside for the awful hair and terrible scent, that is…" He was right. I probably smelled like Vamp.

'_Awful hair? Asshole… One point… Two points…'_

"You remind _me_ of Jack the Ripper." I sneered, laying back down and turning my back to him.

'_Another point for me. Tied again.' _

I heard someone stirring on the basement stairs and knew that someone was fixing to come up. Ben stood after I heard him chug the rest of his beer. I felt his eyes on me and smelled something sharp and sweet. The smell punching me in the gut was coming from him and it got stronger when he came closer and bent to whisper in my ear. "Careful, Girl…"

'_God… I am getting so tired of werewolves… always so fucking aggressive and so quick to whine like a Bitch… but damn was it fun to piss them off…'_

"Can it, Brit." I ordered, pulling my hood over my head so that he couldn't tell I was enjoying our little insult session.

'_Point. I win.'_

He laughed all the way up Adam's hall stairs.

As soon as I heard people coming up from the argument session downstairs, I hopped up and hurried into Adams kitchen where I parked myself on one of his counters. For some reason, I felt like if Adam caught me lying down with my feet on his couch, I'd be in deep shit. He just seemed like that kinda guy, I guess. The Basement door opened and in poured the monsters. I watched Adam cautiously as he stomped into the kitchen to snag a glass from a cabinet, (one that he slammed shut and broke the hinges) filled it in the tap and gulped the water down, chucked the cup into the sink, (where it met its shattering fate) and rested his weight on the palms he placed on the edge of the sink. When Mercy came up, she looked pissed so I assumed they didn't agree on something.

He turned to glare at me. "Get off my counter top. Now." He commanded.

I stifled Domina's growl and complied.

He left then and joined the others who were talking about finding an alternative that might bind me to the pack. I was going to ask what the verdict was when a squeaky girl with short electric blue hair that was curlier than mine busted through the front door.

"I'm home!" She shouted, her arms open wide and in the air. Her sapphire springing locks blew around as the door slammed shut behind her. "Dad! Where are you?"

"I'm in here." It was Adam.

'_No fuckin' way… Adam has a kid?'_

She stormed into the living room where he was and I laughed out loud as Adam wrapped her in his arms and planted a kiss on her forehead.

"This is a joke, right?"

"What is a joke?" Adam was really starting to piss me off… "That I love my daughter?" He snapped.

"Dad." The pixie girl demanded his attention. "Could you please stop being the 'Big Bad Wolf' for just a second?"

He growled at her.

"Oh, don't you give me those yellow eyes, Mister…" She'd shifted her weight to her left leg, had one orange nail-polished hand on her hip and had a pinch hold on Adams cheek with the other. She shook his head back and forth. "She's a girl, Daddy… Not a monster. Well, at least not right now she's not."

'_Yeah… that has to be Adam's daughter. I don't think anyone else could get away with something like that. I wonder if anyone told her what I am, or if she always just assumes that anyone her father brings in is 'a ghoul of the night.'_

She looked over at me and I smiled at her. "I'm Ruby."

"Jesse Hauptman. You must be 'Mini-Mercy'."

I sighed with frustration and she understood me immediately.

"Don't like the nickname, huh?"

I nodded.

"Sheesh. You need 'girl-time'." She strolled over to me and linked our arms together before starting to pull me up stairs. Adam started to warn her about something but she silenced him. "Daddy, leave it."

'_I like this girl a lot…' _I thought.

'_**I do, as well…" **_ Domina chuckled.

I jumped at the sudden voice in my head. I hadn't heard my wolf since last night and I guess I'd gotten used to the silence. Adam and the Marrok and his Son were next to me in a flash, knowing that something had happened.

"It's just Domina." I told them but it seemed to alarm them more, so I added. "She tells me she thinks Jesse is awesome." I smiled innocently.

The Marrok took a good whiff of air. "Truth."

'_Creepy teenage Geek-Wolf… Seriously the guy looks like the captain of the 'Math-leetz' or something. Maybe a computer-tech in his early EARLY twenties but not the 'Alpha of Alpha's.' _

They let us continue up the stairs and into what I assumed was Jesse's room. It was a disaster inside. Clothes and C.D.'s everywhere and books and paper and writing utensils laying all over the place. We chatted for a while on her aqua-marine bed (that happened to be the only clear surface in the whole room) and I made sure to tell her that her choice of music that was blaring out of her oversized stereo was bullshit. So, we went through her music.

"Marilyn Manson?" She asked.

"Sometimes."

She chucked that C.D. into the 'Cool To Listen To With Ruby' Pile. "Jay-Z?"

"No." _To the _'_No' pile…_

"Avenged Sevenfold?"

"Nope." '_No' pile…_

"Muse?"

"Absolutely." _'Yes' pile…_

"The Used?"

"Don't think so…" _'No'._

"Nine Inch Nails?"

"A must." _Toss._

"Mute Math?"

I gave her thumbs up. _Toss._

"Panic At The Disco?"

I glared at her. "No, Ma'am." _Toss._

"The Jonas Brothers?"

"Get out… Now…"

She chucked that one into the trash. "Didn't really like 'em anyways."

"Yeah… Uh, huh."

After we were done listening to music, she convinced me to tell her my story. I was going to give it to her for free, it's not every day that I make a friend who is okay with every crazy supernatural thing that's wrong with me, but she insisted on giving me something in return. A makeover. Now, don't get me wrong, it isn't something that I would normally be down with but she argued a good point.

"_Want them to stop calling you 'Mercy'? Change your look." _Sounded good to me. I told her she could do anything to my hair.

Apparently, 'Have At It', to Jesse, means that she can cut and dye it. She wouldn't tell me what she had in store for me except that it was gonna be 'fantabulous'. So, I went with it. I'm living with Vamps and chillin' with Werewolves now. Does it _really _matter if i get a little hair crazy, too?

In the bathroom, she raked two boxes of 'Deep Mahogany' Hair dye through my head, that she kept in a huge drawer of various other dyes (scary ones), and twisted my hair into a bun. We escaped the strong scent of chemicals and went to her room again where I began my story, starting with a brief prologue of my life before meeting Stefan. I did my best to leave out as much of the blood and violence as I could. When her little egg timer went off, meaning my hair needed to be rinsed, and we headed back to the bathroom.

"That's really intense…" She told me sympathetically as I sat on the floor next to the tub.

"Yeah…" I leaned my head back and she turned on the faucet and began combing and rinsing my hair. I relaxed and sighed happily, for it had been so long since I'd had a friend, or anyone besides Mr. Lame Shirt for that matter, treat me so well.

"You know," She said. "Something really important must be going on. My dad usually comes to scream at me when he smells hair dye… and I don't remember a time when Shaggy was allowed to stay so long…"

I giggled. "Please tell me that Stefan isn't, 'Shaggy'"

"Of course he is. Who else would it be?" He voice was soft and caring, much like her working hands. "You've seen his sweet ride, no doubt."

"Well, duh, but look at the man! Does he look like a 'Shaggy' to you?"

We laughed together. "Nope! Looks more like an 'Anton' or a 'Lucias'." She chuckled.

"Maybe an 'Aldus' or a 'Vladimir'." I added.

We laughed some more as she dried my hair, added a black streak of hair on the right side of my head and dyed the tips of her blue locks black as well.

"Rad." She was running her fingers through my new 'DO' when we'd finished a second rinse. "So, I hope we'll be seeing more of each other."

"I hope so…" I told her truthfully, my voice laced with sincerity.

She giggled. "How do you feel?" She tousled my new curls.

Never fear, my hair still swirled down my back, but she'd layered it so it was all choppy and sexy. "I feel like a fucking rock star." I laughed. "How about you?"

"Awesome, my friend. Just awesome."

I borrowed some of Jesse's clothes (I liked them A LOT more than I liked Rachael's) and put them on. Jesse looked at the Maroon skinny jeans, black Rob Zombie t-shirt and black leather belt with the giant silver lightning bolt buckle I'd stolen from her closet and smiled.

"I like it." She grinned. "Put these on, too." She threw me a pair of all black Converse that were just my size. She rummaged around in what I assumed was a jewelry box and dug out a pair of big silver angel-wing earrings for me and then went to work on an outfit of her own.

She shimmied into a pair or purple skinny jeans, (I realized that Jesse wasn't shy when she started stripping in front of me. It didn't bother me a bit, though. The only nudity that embarrasses me is my own) ditched the ancient wife-beater she was sporting and replaced it with a black t-shirt that had 'I Fight Like A Girl' printed across the chest and put on a belt with a silver rhinestone covered skull and cross bones on it.

"I'm a silver lover, myself." I told her.

"Yeah, I love it, but I can never own the real thing. You know, not with all the wolf-traffic we get here."

I laughed at that as I tossed her a pair of black and purple lace-up vans I'd spotted under her bed.

"We should go to Mercy's. It's way more fun over there."She pulled on a purple hoodie from the collection on the back of her door. "Snag one and let's go." She winked.

I chose a black leather jacket and left the room with her. We picked up Mercy at Adam's room on our way towards the stairs.

"Let me bind her to me." I heard Stefan say when we got to the bottom of the stairs.

"I don't trust you." Adam snarled. You could cut through the testosterone in the air with a rusty spoon.

"But Mercy trusts me. Let me perform my own ritual and I will keep both Ruby and Domina out of trouble until Mercy tells me otherwise. I give you my word."

"Whoa. Why are we talking about 'Ruby' and 'Rituals' in the same sentence?" I asked, coming to stand next to Stefan.

"We don't know if putting you through the pack ritual will work and I refuse to risk something terrible happening. So, I am proposing I do my own thing. A ceremony that _will _work." He glanced at Mercy, then.

"A blood exchange." Mercy mumbled.

Adam glared and the rest of the wolves growled accept for Geek-Wolf.

"I'm not gonna ask how you know what he's talking about." Mr. Math-Leet said.

"Well, it will work." She told us. "I'm almost impervious to magic and it saved me from Blackwood."

"You were going to tell me this when?" Adam roared.

"Never."

"Okay… You guys are talking about drinking blood, and I'm gettin' the fuck out of here. Good bye…"

I turned around and walked right into Ben's chest. "You are, are you?"

"I _will_ put you through a window if I have to." I warned him.

Stefan's hand appeared on my shoulder. "Time to go home." He said. "I'll take care of it tonight. Mercy, tell your dogs I won't hurt her."

I frowned at a disappointed Jesse and left in her clothes without going to Mercy's with her.

'_Stupid Weres and Vamps and your stupid testosterone wars…'_

Mr. Shitty Shirt drove us home and was rudely quiet the whole way. I slammed the door shut behind me when pulled up to his house. He was putting something off, I could tell, because he didn't teleport to the front door to open it, taking his time to walk the whole way. When we got inside he told all his mortal friends to leave in that tone I hated and then lured me into the guest room. I heard the front door open and shut a few times and realized that they were really leaving the house.

'_Leaving me alone…'_

"You aren't going to like this but it has to happen or the Marrok will have to find some other way of keeping you in check. I assure you that _his_ way will be less comfortable." He informed me.

"And you're talking about what, now?" I knew what he meant but I didn't want to say it. Didn't want it to be true.

"I'm going to feed on you, Ruby. Then you are going to feed on me. That's just the way it is." He was stressed and distraught.

"That's disgusting! And no, that's not the way it is! " I tried to leave but he grabbed me and tossed me on the bed. Really tossed me.

"You aren't leaving this room until the exchange is complete. It's the only way I can think of that won't harm you. You and your new wolf have to be controlled somehow." He appeared on top of me. "Now please, Miss Ruby, show me your neck."

"Fuck you…" I growled. My throat started to burn and I thought I felt tears coming on.

He punched the soft cushion next to my head, "Ruby!" He used that voice again, but it didn't work.

'_Why the Asshole act all of a sudden?'_

"You don't scare me, Stefan…"

"Don't I?" He hissed and awful sound and flashed his fangs.

Now _that _scared me. I think I might have started to cry but I don't remember. Domina didn't even give me a chance to say anything to that. (Though I did have enough time to warn her not to leave me naked again, Damn her)

_**(Domina's P.O.V.)**_

I took over immediately and wrapped my arms around Stefan. I must admit that the frightened look in his eyes was most intoxicating.

'_Is my need to frighten all creatures lesser than me unattractive? Ah, well… I can't say that I care…'_

"Oh, were you not expecting that?" I lifted him up and threw him through the wooden door behind him. Hopping up and stepping through the splinters of the room , I hummed a tune I'd learned from Ruby's mind. I crouched over my wounded Love. "Try that again and I _will _kill you… no matter how badly I want to lay with you."

He hissed and groaned, trying to move.

"Ah, ah, ah… No getting up." I held him down. "Ruby wants to go see the one called Jesse. We are leaving and won't be back until she feels like she wants to see you again. We promise not to kill anything while we're out…" I thought about that last one for a moment. "Never mind. We promise not to kill anything Human, Fae, Wolf or Vampire while were out…" I stood and walked to the front door and he made no effort to stop me. A roaring head throb of a request stabbed at the back of my mind in the form of Ruby's voice. "Ruby says 'Fuck you. You're an Asshole. She can't believe she ever thought you could be different than the others. Don't wait up.'" Then I left.


	7. Chapter 7

_**AUTHOR'S NOTE:**_

_**So, this chapter isn't really as serious as the others have been. It isn't very long but it's funny and I'm positive you guys will like it. I guess it's kind of an 'apology present' to you guys for the lameness of Chapter 5, haha. So please, enjoy :)**_

_**P.S.**_

_**I don't know how I am with comedy… I think this chapter is great but I would love it if people would give feedback especially on this chapter. I gotz tuh know!**_

_**-SheWhoRunsWithWolves-**_

_**(Domina's P.O.V.)**_

I decided to side with Ruby. _'I suppose,' _I thought to her, _'that if we want Adam to hand his daughter over to us, knocking down his front door might not help us any.'_

I climbed the plebian steps of the Alpha's home. For a man who had such power and authority, he sure didn't live like it. The building was huge, yet plain and dull. An alpha should be able to do better than that. I rapped on the wooden door and a small girl answered for me. I winced at her awful hair color.

'_It can't grow like that, can it?'_

"Ruby!" the girl jumped at me, wrapping me in her skinny arms. She pulled back to look at me after a short moment of squeezing and froze. "Whoa…" she said. "You aren't Ruby."

"No." I smirked. "I am—"

"Domina. Please, Centurion, make yourself at home." She stepped aside and gestured towards the interior in invitation.

I absolutely adored her.

She led me into the front room as a deep voice called to her from upstairs. "Who is it, Jesse?" The Alpha asked.

"Domina." I said, taking a seat on a comfortable lounging bench.

Adam was down the stairs and standing between Jesse and I before the blue headed girl had time to protest. I smiled at him pleasantly and he winced. "What are you playing at?" He growled.

"Ruby isn't speaking to Stefan anymore or at least not until he begs her for forgiveness."

"What?" Jesse gasped sadly, her tone thick with feminine drama.

"He tried to bite us."

Jesse squeaked, clasping her hands over her mouth.

"He said he wasn't going to harm you…" Adam was getting angry.

"He hadn't intended on it, but I noticed something odd about him as he tried to take Ruby. He knows something that he isn't telling us. Something that scared him. Before I took over, he'd become agitated, almost frantic."

"And you want to stay here?" Jesse sounded hopeful.

Adam grunted.

"Ruby doesn't really seem to care where she stays," I told them, "as long as she can be with Jesse. She's whining something about 'Girl Time' and 'Mercy's House'."

"Yes!" Ruby's curly friend shouted.

"No… I don't think so…" Her father corrected.

Jesse frowned and huffed.

"I'll let Ruby out and keep it that way unless she's in danger." I promised.

Suddenly I smelled a familiar wolf, though she hadn't decided to show her face yet.

"Too close to the next moon. It's full in three days and I won't leave my daughter with a crazed Roman psychopath. You can stay in the safe room until then, we'll talk afterwards."

"I do not feel the moon's pull, Alpha. I figure that because Ruby is 'Special', the wolf's restrictions don't affect us like they should."

"That explains why the Marrok doesn't threaten you. You can't feel his power at all, can you?" She finally showed her face.

"No." I told Anna, who descended down the stairs slowly. "So," I turned back to Hauptman, "I'm not a danger."

He laughed.

"And I won't come out unless I'm protecting Ruby…" Then I added, "or you daughter."

"Staying at Mercy's would be fine, Dad. Sam will be there, right?"

Adam huffed and pulled a shiny black device from his pocket, into which he spoke. Ruby informed me that it was a 'cell phone' and that he used it to get in contact with those who were not present. I could her talking on the coming from the black thing, but it was so strange sounding that my ears couldn't decipher it. He bid farewell to the phone, calling it Mercy, and then walked up his hallway stairs and into a room where I could hear him speaking with Bran Cornick.

"Is Ruby gonna be okay?" Jesse asked me.

I reached for her and pulled her into an embrace. "Of course she is." I released her when Anna growled and Adam came back to join us.

He sighed. "Alright…" He didn't look happy.

"WOO HOO!" Jesse shouted.

"Mercy will be by to pick the two of you up in a few minutes. She says your welcome as long as you want. Go pack, Jesse." He huffed again, as his daughter bounced happily to the back of his home. "I want Ruby back before you leave." He demanded.

So, I set her free.

_**(Ruby's P.O.V.)**_

Mercy and Jesse sure know how to cheer someone up. When she brought the two of us home to her trailer we immediately prepared the biggest batch of the most sinfully sweet chocolate chip cookie dough I've ever tasted. I'm surprised we even had enough left over to actually bake. I didn't think about Stefan the whole night and they made it so easy to forget about the stress and hurt of the situation. It had made me very tired, though, so after cookies, milk and an amazing marathon of shitty SciFi originals, I crashed on the couch. Jesse conked out just as soundly on the floor below me.

I'd been sleeping like a Baby when the jiggling lock of mercy's front door startled me awake in the middle of the night. I was scared and tried not to move a muscle as a dark figure opened the door, came in and locked it behind him. He grunted a few times and yawned great and big as he walked down the hallway. I would have gotten up or screamed but my nose was getting better, and I could tell he was a wolf. That isn't the trouble I was willing to get into. Besides he'd had a key, hadn't he? He hadn't tried to be quiet either, what with all the yawning and what not. I heard him slip into a room and collapse on a bed. Then some snoring… Some loud fucking snoring…

In the morning I woke to the smell of fresh coffee, hair spray and the buzzing sounds of the morning news. I'd also forgotten where I was and shrieked at my first sight of the day, a freakishly happy Jesse watching me sleep.

'_How can she look so happy? Maybe she's a morning person…'_

"What in God's name are you doing?" I yipped my eyes burning as the first sun I'd seen in days played upon my face.

"Just being a wolf." She said pleasantly.

"Oh, okay." I agreed, "Wait—What the f—"

"FEROCIOUS GROWL OF DOOMNESS!" She screamed, jumping on me and attacking me with tickle. "Werewolf-Jesse has successfully captured her prey! OM NOM NOM!"

I thought I was going to pee myself.

"Werewolf Jesse needs to keep it down and go to the store if she wants something for dinner tonight." Mercy's words saved me.

I squealed and Jesse gave me one final poke in the side and then leapt off of me.

"I'm dropping Jesse off at the store and then going to work, Ruby." Mercy said. "Jesse, Bran and Charles are picking you up. You've got the cell number, just give them a call when you're ready."

I hopped up and walked them to the door. "Have fun…" I was gonna miss them until they came back.

"How'd you sleep?" Mercy asked, her and Jesse turning to me before walking down the front steps.

I sighed. "It was a lot less kinky than straddling Stefan all night…" I told them.

Their jaws hit the floor and I realized what I'd just said.

"Oh, Christ! No! I mean kinks in my neck! A-a-and sleeping with Stefan in dark!" That didn't help.

"I don't want to hear anymore…" Jesse chuckled. "That's not a way I ever want to visualize our Vampire."

"Oookaay, then." Mercy said, backing away slowly. "Coffee's on the counter, breakfast's in the fridge, don't let Samuel make babies with you… BYE!" She ran for her Vanagon and She and Jesse peeled out.

"WHAT THE FUCK YOU GUYS!" WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?" I yelled after them. That's when I remembered the stranger from the middle of the night.

I crept inside cautiously, shutting the door softly. When I turned to face the inside of the house, all was quiet. I snuck stealthily to the only door in the hall that wasn't Mercy's room or the bathroom and reached for the handle. Unfortunately, because of the lucky person I am, I didn't get that chance to open the door and spy on the late night stranger like I'd planned.

My fingertips brushed the handle and then the door flew open. "BAAH!" Shouted the man who jumped into the hall.

I sprinted down to the kitchen, knocking a cup of coffee off the counter as I flew by and stepping on the flying glass shards as I ran and dove behind the cabinet island.

The man was laughing and my foot was throbbing painfully. "Oh, God! I haven't laughed this hard in centuries!"

'_What a total Fuck-Head!'_

"This is bullshit!" I shouted.

"Oh, come out little wolf. I was only playing." He sounded like he'd cried a little, too.

"Fuck you!" I yelled from behind cover. "My foot is bleeding a river over here! Are things still funny?"

I heard him suck in a breath. "Oh." He said, sounding a little less thrilled. "Let me take a look."

He hurdled the table in his P.J.'s. and landed, crouching, in front of me."I'm a doctor."

"Yeah, uh huh! I've heard that one before!" I inched away from him.

'_Christ, this has to be the craziest morning I've ever had in my whole life…'_

"Don't be stupid." He reached for me.

"Oh, no, I don't think so... Mercy warned me about you!"

He looked confused.

"She said not to let you make babies with me!"

He hooted again and didn't stop for another few minutes. "She said that?"

"Yes! She did!" I was angry with him. My foot was gushing all over the place and there was a crazy wolf laughing at me. "For fuck's sake! How many blonde rapist wolves do you guys have?"

"You've met Ben, then?"

"He's hard to ignore, yes."

He hummed. "OH SHIT, WHAT'S THAT?" He shrieked and pointed behind me.

Now that was unsettling, and immortal beast with super strength should _NEVER_ say, '_OH SHIT WHAT'S THAT_'…

I looked behind me, but nothing was amiss. Then a calloused hand wrapped itself around my ankle and started to drag me towards the bathroom. "C'mon, little one." Samuel told me. "Time to get this cleaned up."

"Agh!" I grunted and scratched at the carpet and walls, trying to stop him from getting his way.

'_Wait a second… I'm a fucking Werewolf.'_

I shoved my claws into the wall and stopped us before sweeping his legs from under him with the leg he wasn't holding. He fell and slammed his shoulder into the wall as I jumped up and hopped towards the front door.

He was in front of me before I reached it and was lifting me and throwing me over his shoulder. "Oh, no you don't!" he roared.

I jerked to the side and kicked off the wall with my good foot. I meant for that to slam him against the wall again but where I thought there was flimsy trailer wall, there was the open door to the guest room.

'_Damn it…' _ I thought as my face came closer and dangerously closer to the floor. _CRASH…_

I hit the ground when he dropped me and he landed on my legs.

'_Ouch…'_

I shoved him off and looked around, spotting a window.

'_Escape hatch!'_

I made a B-line for the window and he caught the collar of my borrowed shirt, ripping it when he yanked me onto the bed. He jumped on top of me and I punched him right in his face. Blood gushed from his nose and Domina seemed pleased that the drawing of blood had been reciprocated.

"Aww! You little Bitch!" His whine was nasally and muffled by the hand with which he cupped his face. He slapped me. Not too hard but it was still a slap. So, I raked talons across his chest, drawing more blood and ripping his shirt open.

When I rolled on top of him and started pounding my fists into his chest, I thought I was giving him a run for his money, thought I had him down. Boy was I wrong… He hit me again, in the chest this time, knocking the wind out of me. I fell off the bed and rolled over on my side and clutching my chest.

"MUST BANDAGE FOOT!" He shouted, coming after me again. "HOLD STILL!"

I started to crawl away from him but I wasn't quick enough and he grabbed a hold of the leg of Jesse's neon orange 'jammy pants I'd been loaned. I kept crawling away and he kept pulling in the leg of my pants, pulling them completely off. I managed to stand, (in my panties) gasping for air as I was, and he stood as well and hobbled towards the door after me. Catching my hair, he flung me on the bed again, ripping the thick draw-string from his pants (which caused his pants the fall around his ankles) and binding my wrists.

"NO MORE HITTING!" he shouted, seeming proud that he'd tied me up and disabled me.

"SCREW YOU, DOUCHE-BAG!" I kicked him in the neck and flipped onto my stomach, trying yet again to escape.

"AND NO MORE RUNNING AWAY!" He gripped my hips and pulled me back to him.

"SAMUEL! WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO HER?"

The two of us looked over to find a frightened Jesse, an angry Charles and a surprised Marrok standing in the doorway of Mercy's guest room.

'_Well, that was quick… didn't even hear 'em come in…'_

Now, picture the situation, if you will. Samuel and I are bleeding, half naked, and our shirts are ripped up. I'm bent over on the bed, Samuel's standing beside the bed holding my hips and pulling my ass against his crotch. Oh, yeah… and we're both hot and sweaty…

Despite the horror on Jesse's face, she managed to pull out her cell phone, snap a picture and put it back in her pocket all the while not changing her face at all.

"I was just, umm… explaining to Ruby that I'm a Doctor and I'm here to make her feel good…" Samuel blurted nervously.

"With your penis?" Jesse shouted.

'…_fuck my life…'_


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

As soon as Jesse mentioned 'Penis' I was done. "Nope!" I got up and hopped to the door. "Sorry, but I'm completely fucking done with this!"

"You're bleeding!" Jesse gasped. "Why are you bleeding?"

"Hmm!" I turned and glared at Samuel. "I don't know! Why am I bleeding, Samuel? Huh?"

"It was an accident!" He shouted.

"Accident my ass! You jumped at me! Who the Fuck do you think you are?"

"I am the Marrok's oldest son, and I—"

"And you removed yourself from my pack months ago. You owe this young woman an apology, Boy." The Marrok growled.

I grinned at Bran. "Why thank you, Marrok. Finally a wolf decides to show some manners!" I huffed and eyed Samuel again. "I'm waiting…"

Geek-Wolf chuckled. "Oh, don't get ahead of yourself, Miss Talbot." The Marrok turned to speak to the second blond rapist. "Good work, Son… Not even the Marrok beds women _that _quickly… I am proud."

I jerked around to face him again. "Are you shitting me?"

Bran didnt like the way I spoke to him one bit, the twitch of the corner of his mouth proved that but he knew he was in control. Smirking, he eyed me, letting my know he knew that Domina wouldn't be coming out anytime soon. I growled at his smug grin and turned back to Sam who was cupping a hand over the laugh trying to escape his mouth.

"Don't think I'm done with you, you idiot!" I shouted.

He snorted and then looked serious all of a sudden, remembering something, it seemed. "And don't think _I'm _done with _you_, Ruby. I still have to bandage that foot of yours."

I looked down at the pool of red that was forming where i stood and only then did i notice the room wreaked of my blood.

"I'm actually a doctor..."

I growled at him.

"Anyone in this room can vouch for me... Even Jesse..."

I looked to Jesse and she nodded her approval. I heaved a sigh of defeat and within five minutes I was seated on Mercy's toilet lid with an ancient wolf cleaning the bottom of my foot. It was awkward, that moment. Jesse, Bran and Charles were in the front room chatting about something and Samuel The Rapist kept looking up at me like he had something to say to me.

"What?" I snapped. "What do you want?"

he glanced up at me and then back down at my foot. "Your blood," He explained, "It smells different." The chattering in the front room quieted.

"Yeah, so?"

"What kind of fae are you?" his hands stilled.

"I'm...not a fae.."

"Yes you are." Bran was standing in the bathroom door way suddenly.

"DAMN IT!" i jumped. "Can you guys not sneak around like that?" they both stayed quiet, forcing me to think about what was said. "You think I'm.."

"Fae." It was Samuel. "You smell similar to my girlfriend.. but a little watered down and just... different."

"Ive never smelled your kind either, Miss Talbot, and Ive met more fae than I can remember. You aren't European either."

"Maybe a distant relative of some fae." Sam said.

"I'm full blooded Indian." I spat.

"No,"Charles was behind Bran now, and i could hear Jesse making her way to the bathroom too. "Not with hair like that."

I retracted my foot, realizing Samuel was done, and brought both my knees to my chest. wrapping my arms around my legs i sighed. "Who am I..." In the last few days, everything i knew had turned around and punched me in the gut. My home, gone. My boss, filthy female traffic assistant. Vampires, real. Me, fae. Domina... Sister... "What the fuck..."

They left me alone in there. even Jesse. That was alright with me. I had too much shit to deal with but I was glad I hadn't had anything to begin with. if I'd had anything to lose, id have gone insane already. What i needed was rest and time to think. With a huff of air and a great yawn, I hobbled to Mercy's couch and laid there for a few hours, all the while avoiding thoughts of Stefan.

When the phone rang on the coffee table, I rolled off the couch and snagged it. "Thompson residence..." I mumbled.

"So," Jesse began. "did you know there's a wolf looking for you right now?" she chuckled.

I rolled over onto my stomach. "What?"

"Yeah, haha. Ben the rapist is here. He's pretending to look for his keys or something... but hes looking for you, Ruby.."

I snorted, "and you know that how?"

"last night when we were doing hair, you mentioned your little chat with him."

"Uhh huh..."

"And you said you were laying on the couch?"

"Yeah, and?"

"I caught him sitting there a few minuets ago. Sat there breathing heavy, like he was catching your scent... now he's running around playing 'Hunting Dog'"

"Oh hell..." I slapped my cheek. "Are you serious?"

"yeah.. guess he liked you a little more than you thought."

"Guess so..." I sighed.

Jesse gasped suddenly.

"What?" I asked her. "What is it?"

"He's coming up from the safe room..."

I heard Adams basement door shut over the phone and then Jesse started laughing a cute, fake little laugh. "Oh Ruby! That's hilarious!"

"What?" I was confused.

"Yeah, You're so funny Ruby!"

"Who's that?" I heard Ben say.

"Oh, you know.." Jesse told him. "Just a girlfriend of mine." She continued laughing until Ben asked her again.

"No seriously." He sounded aggravated. "Who's on the phone?"

"Just Ruby Talbot." I heard the smirk in Jesse's voice. "Did you two meet yet?"

"Jesse, knock it off..." I growled.

"Is she coming over?" I heard his accent again.

"I don't know. Ruby, are you coming over?"

I growled at her.

"She says Maybe" Jesse told him. "She's at Mercy's right now... by herself."

"HEY!" i don't know what i thought my yelling would do. before I finished the word, I heard Ben rush out of the house and slam the door behind him. "Shit Jesse! What the hell?"

"hey, hes a total snark... but he's damned cute." She giggled at her statement.

"BUT HE'S A DAMNED RAPIST!" I howled.

She snorted. "If he were really a rapist, do you think my dad would let him anywhere near me?"

She had a point, but i didn't get to tell her so because there was a knock at the door. "Someones here..." I told her.

"Have fun..." and then she hung up on me.

I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose.

"Open up, whore..." Ben was at the front door.

"Yes... of course." I got up and plopped back down on the couch.

"C'mon, Love... We can do this the hard way, or we can do this the easy way."

"What are you even talking about? You just rushed over here for no reason and now you're demanding to come in! what do you even want?

"Well I.. err.."

"You Errr?" I scoffed and covered my head with a pillow. "Thank god for that..."

"I only want to chat."

"Yes, and that's why you address me as Whore and pound on Mercy's door..."

"Bitch."

"Rapist."

"That wasn't me!" He shouted. I'd struck a nerve.

"You aren't getting in... run along..." I shut my eyes then. I didn't care about him or if I pissed him off. I don't even remember when he left, just that things were quiet and i was exhausted.

Sleep... sweet, sweet sleep...


	9. Chapter 9

I'd woken about a quarter after six and hadn't found anyone in Mercy's house, so I assumed they'd just let me sleep and headed over to Adam's. I slipped into the street clothes from the other day and walked out of Mercy's trailer shoving my arms through Jesse's leather jacket. I walked around the side of the double-wide and tread loudly through the back lot, noticing a particularly solemn looking car parked in a patch of thistles.

_I feel your pain, Man..._ I nodded at it sadly.

I came to an old fence and growled at it, not wanting even a little bit to climb it. The wind whistled through the woods near Adams house and I shivered.

"Fuck its cold." I hissed.

"My sentiments exactly." Came a familiar voice. I froze and almost wet myself when I turned slowly and found Andre standing in the clearing behind me. I couldn't move. Literally.

_Where could I go?_

He was standing between me and Mercy's and there was no way I could climb that fence and book it to Adams before he could catch me. I'd learned not to run from him the first time. A ring around my neck where he'd choked me started to ache.

"What do you want?" _How very generic of me..._

"My Mistress if very upset, you know?" He began softly. You wouldn't believe the evil he was capable of unless you'd witnessed it... and _I_ had...

"I don't give a _Shit _how she feels.." I spat, fear gripping my stomach.

"Of course you don't. You wouldn't have called me out or drawn Edwin's blood if you were worried about what she would think... You're so bold, Miss Talbot.." He said, admiration in his voice. "and yet fear bubbles in your gut as we speak." He grinned, his black satin shirt and silky hair shimmering in the moonlight.

I took a step back and felt the loosened old wire of the fence against my back. "I wasn't me who did those things!" Suddenly I became all too aware of the claw marks on my thighs. They burned and stung under my tight jeans.

_**Let me out...**_ Domina begged ruefully. **_Let me take care of him..._**

_I cant... Not if you kill him. _

As much as I wanted him to meet his true death, if it happened, Adam would refuse to help me and the Marrok would end me for good.

_**I wont... **_She was angry, but she wasn't lying.

"Then who?" Andre chuckled. "There's no one else it could have been..."

Fear left my stomach as the tingles of Domina's strength kept up my torso like warm fingers."You don't think so?" I smirked.

**Domina's P.O.V.**

_**Remember not to end him...**_ My darling new sister warned as the last of her drifted to the back of mind.

"Hush, now..." I soothed aloud. _All will be well, Sister..._

The Vampire in front of me had smelled the magic rush of me, most certainly. He stood there readied for battle, fangs completely extended and hissing like a demon.

"What was that?" He demanded to know. "What tricks are you playing at?"

"It is no trick, Child, I assure you."

"You are not Ruby Talbot." He stepped back when I stepped forward.

"No. And yes." I laughed casually. "We are one in the same."

"Wolf."

"Certainly."

He roared and lept at me. I looked back at the fence and yanked some of the wire loose...

**Stefan's P.O.V.**

I rapped quietly on the front door of Adam Hauptman's home. I wanted to apologize to Ruby. She'd done nothing to deserve the way I'd treated her and I couldn't bare to let her be without an explanation much longer.

"It's open." Came Mercy's sweet voice.

"Its me, Stefan." I announced as I entered, though anyone in the house would already have smelled me.

"How is everything here?" I asked her, walking cautiously into the front room to meet her.

She was curled up on one of the couches. "The Marrok and his family have gone to stay in a hotel. Adam an Jesse went to see they were comfortable. They'll be back soon," she leaned forward to place a purple mug of tea on the table. "and you have some explaining to do."

She was being polite, I knew, but she was upset with me. I could feel it. I took a seat on the couch across from her and looked into her beautiful eyes. Id always loved that she would meet them. No one looked into my eyes anymore. Ever. Strangely, it was something that I missed the most from my human life.

"Ruby."

She nodded. "You attacked her."

I was going to deny it, but I would be lying. I tried not to make a habit of lying to Mercy. "I did." I told her, turning my head shamefully.

"How could you, Stefan? She's scared enough already. You know that." She sat up more and turned to dangle her bronzed feet off the edge of the couch.

"I know..." I didn't know what else to say to her.

"Why?"

"I'd smelled Andre on our way back." I admitted. "I was afraid..." I sighed. "I was afraid that if I didn't complete the exchange that night, and then Andre tried something against her, I wouldn't be able to come to her aid. I wouldn't know she'd been hurt." It was the complete truth. It felt good to tell the whole truth to somebody.

"I understand why you'd do it, But you did it so..."

"Badly." I stated.

"Yes." She sighed. "You know, If Domina is claiming you the way she is, it isn't just her who wants you. The wolf knows what its Human wants. Always. If Domina has claimed you... Ruby wants you too."

"I know that." I snapped at her and then softened my eyes apologetically.

She let it pass. "You came to see her, I know, But don't you say anything sweet if you don't mean it."

I was going to agree with her, but my nose caught something that the wind carried in through the window.

"Vampire." Mercy was on her feet.

"Ruby." I sped out the door as Mercy went to phone. Calling Adam I assumed.

Stopping on the front steps to smell the breeze, I caught Domina out the corner of my eye. She strolled over to me gingerly and threw a body at my feet.

"Take care of this before I decide to kill him anyways..." She growled, eying me.

_She looks into my eyes too... She isn't afraid..._

It was Andre who she'd dropped, a damned thick piece of metal wire binding his wrists to his pale ankles. He reeked of his own blood and I looked down to find deep, menacing claw marks that had raked from his hips to mid thigh, goring him worse than he'd torn Ruby. I smirked at that. The bastard deserved every wound she'd given him. He looked up and caught me smirking and I let him see.

"This whore tied me up like an animal!" He roared.

Domina put her boot to his face, crushing his nose. _Good..._ Andre was quiet then, and I took what little time I had with Dominas and tried to make to most of it.

"Please forgive me." I whispered, meaning every word and reaching for her face. "It was not my intention to drive you away like I did." She accepted. I knew she did, but she evaded my touch and gave me a sideways look that I understood completely.

_It isn't her I should be apologizing to..._

I bent to pick of the other Vampire and nodded to her silent gaze as a rusty truck pulled up into Adam's driveway blasting a horrendous rock song. Domina strode passed me, without a word, toward the house. The Englishman, Ben, turned his truck off, got out and stared intently at Domina like she was a meal. The sweet scent of his intense arousal burned my nostrils as he neared and stopped when he caught sight of me.

"Stephen." He stopped and nodded to me.

"Stefan." I sneered, flashing fang. I hated him. Loathed him. He was after Ruby, and it was at that moment I fully realized that so was I.

_I want her... I want all of her and he will not touch her... _I thought. I meant it.

He snorted and headed to the house, hot on the trail of _my _prize...

_'Mine...' _Ruby had said...

"Mine indeed..." I whispered to myself and then disappeared into the night, on my way to see my Mistress with my mangled old friend in hand.

**A/N: So? So? Huh, huh, huh? I know it was short and kinda sloppy... but I hope you enjoyed it! Is the future love triangle is starting to become apparent? Maybe its too early for this... but c'mon ladies, Team Stefan? Team Ben? What's your choice so far? **

**Review please!**


	10. Chapter 10

**Ruby's P.O.V.**

The Monster's had taken to using the safe room to talk about things they didn't want me to hear. It was sound proof, that's why. Stefan had gone to see his mistress and take that bastard of a Vampire, Andre, away. I grinned evilly as I remembered what I'd asked Domina to do to him... She'd gored him up good. Worse than he'd done me. I was lounging on the couch again, and Ben was in the same spot he'd sat the day I'd met him. He was staring right at me, sitting there in his jeans, sneakers and tight black and white plaid button up. There _is _such a thing as the 'bed head' hair style, but I think Ben just really doesn't do anything with his hair. His head of dirty-blond locks was a short mess that pointed every which way and I smelled not a hint of gel or product on him. He was wearing cologne, however, and as much as I hate to admit it, it smelled great. There was something else, though. That sweetness again. I didn't understand it. I returned his stare

"Why so quiet?" He asked lifting his second beer to his lips.

"Why so damned nosy?" I shot back.

He laughed and leaned back. "I do love that mouth of yours..."

The sweet stench intensified. "What is that?" my nose wrinkled of its own accord.

"What?"

"That smell on you..."

He lifted his collar to his nose and inhaled. "That would be Old Spice, Love."

"No, Jackass... The other smell..."

He sniffed the air. "Oh.." He elongated the sound into three syllables. "That." He smiled at me and left his spot to assume the cushion next to me as the door bell rang. His face soured immediately and he looked to the basement door to see if anyone was coming up. He huffed and cursed and got up to get the door.

"I must see Ruby." Came Stefan's beyond urgent voice.

"Yeah, yeah. Come in." Ben grumbled.

Stefan appeared beside me, in Ben's seat, and took my shoulders in his long, elegant hands. "Two nights." He spoke urgently, giving me a soft shake. "My Mistress wants a to see you in two nights. If you can not please her... If you cant show her what she wants, you belong to Andre, and he will not be so gentle as I have been, Ruby, you know that."

"What?" I didn't understand. "Is she mad about tonight? That wasn't my fault! Andre came to _me_!" My voice carried all the way down to the safe room and stirred the Beasts.

"I'm surprised she didn't call for us after the first attack on Edwin." He said solemnly.

"What's all this hub-bub?" Mercy asked, coming up from the Monster conference away from my ears.

"If you still want to help with this situation, we need to start now. As in, right this second." Stefan declared.

Ben was still standing by the front door, staring intently at the scene. He looked both confused and angry at the fact that something important was about to happen, and also that Stefan had snatched his seat faster than a sneaky REPO man.

Mercy's face became very serious as her gaze wandered from me to Stefan and back and fourth. "To the safe room, then." She finally said. "Ben, get down there. We may need the extra wolf power if something goes wrong."

The sheer enthusiasm and utter obedience with which Ben obeyed Mercy's orders was shocking. He simply went. At the speed of light he was exactly where she'd told him to be. No growls of impatience or disapproval.

"Lets go." Mercy turned and lead the way down the stairs.

In the safe room, the Were's were standing stiff and serious in a circle. Ben must have filled them in on what he'd heard, because when he saw me come in he gestured to Adam who started towards me, looking as strong and fierce as I'd ever seen him.

"You are going to try and duplicate Mercy's ability. Do understand what that means?"

He was putting the situation lightly. What he really meant was that they were going to keep me down here for two nights, testing me and pushing me to do the things that I'd spent much of my life trying to suppress and eliminate.

"I do." I nodded and gave him a very respectful nod.

He pursed his tanned lips slightly, in what I took to be the very beginning of a closed mouth smile. "Lets do this, then."

In the safe room were Adam, Mercy, Ben, Stefan, Warren and Darrell. All of which stood around the room as if they were ready to pounce.

_**Do you mean to rid yourself of me? **_Came my sisters sorrowful inquiry.

I gasped and spoke to her out loud. "Of course not..." I had the attention of all the Monsters in the room.

_**Then why do you mean to change from me to Mercy? **_

"If I do this," I spoke to the Were's, Vampire and, well, whatever Mercy was. "Will it destroy Sister?"

"Domina?" I nodded at Stefan who stepped into the center of the spacious room to face me. "I honestly cant say that I know... How is she?"

_**The Vampires... they will kill you if you do not try this... **_Domina's words were a statement, but I heard a question in her echoing tone.

I didn't answer her. She looked through my mind and gathered the answers she wanted from me. I felt her anger and hatred she felt for Marsilia and Stefan's seethe. She was afraid of going back to the Underworld, or where ever it was she'd come from, and she was going to miss Stefan dearly if she disappeared. She was going to miss me even more.

In almost no time at all Domina had become a part of me, and I a part of her. A tear streamed down my cheek at the thought of being all alone again. Maybe I would stay with Stefan or Mercy or Adam, and maybe they would love my like I was family... but nothing would compare to the love and bond that Domina and I had. Without her, I'd be alone in my head, lost in my own thoughts, worries and mental barriers. Now that she was with me, I had someone always. Someone who knew everything that I am, think and feel and she loves me still. We don't agree on everything, but she loves me unconditionally, as I do her. Losing her would be like losing my mother all over again...

_**I don't want to leave... but I wont let them harm you or your friends here because of me... **_She announced through me. **_You are the first people I've known in centuries and I, as much as I don't want to admit it, have come to care, I suppose you'd say... It's nice.. to talk to someone other than the darkness I found in death..._**

"Thank you.." Mercy said quietly. "And it was nice to have you with us. That's how I feel, anyways.." she glanced around the room. "I grew up with the Marrok, you know... Seein' you put that man in his place the way you did, made my life."

I chuckled with Mercy. "That _was _ pretty cool... haha."

_**May I speak with Stefan before you do this? **_Domina asked.

I looked around the room and received approval from every set of eyes before letting Domina take control.

**Mercy's P.O.V.**

I stared at Stefan. No one in that room could know just how upset he was but me. The slight pursing of his lips and the way he stood up completely straight, instead of his usual casual stance told me he was having a terrible time. A wave of magic rushed over us all and he met her where she stood and took her into his arms, held her close and rocked slightly. When she looked up at him he bent to kiss her.

I'd never seen Stefan kiss anyone before. In fact, I don't think I could remember a time when I'd ever seen him with a woman at all. He was so gentle with her, like she was the tiniest porcelain buttercup you'd ever find. He kissed her softly, but thoroughly, and the gentle way he held her neck and waist reminded me of the way he sometimes touched me. It was then that I knew for sure that he cared for me, or _had_ cared. I hoped that now that he had Ruby, he could be happy, for I would never return any love he felt for me. I just couldn't.

When he pulled away from her, laid a series of quick pecks on her lips and then asked Ruby to join us. I could feel the growing anger flooding the man standing closest to me. Ben. I was wondering if he'd ever find a woman he liked better than a Whore or Cow. He was tense and staring at the two of them with death in his eyes. Adam noticed it too. Ben and Stefan knew each other. After the run in we'd had with the witch, they had become Comrades, of a sort. Maybe of the lowest sort, but they seemed to except each other well enough. I was beginning to feel a rivalry coming on. After all, Stefan is a man who will defend what he cares for and Ben is, well, he's Ben. I knew the two of them didn't like each other well enough not to scuffle over it. They would, too, if I knew Ben at all. I noticed that the only two men I knew, that I had had felt might secretly have feelings for me, both seemed drawn to the one person in this world I felt resembled me almost completely...

When Ruby was present Stefan pecked her quickly and then called me over to them. "I have a feeling this is going to be hard." He spoke to us all.

"You and me both..." Ruby agreed, her lips still swollen from the kiss her wolf and Stefan had shared.

"Touch her," He ordered. "You said it happens when you touch."

Ruby took my hand, reluctantly. I smelled the fear on her and suddenly she let go.

"I'm a coyote." I assured her. "And I sometimes see the dead." there were a number of people in the room who had no idea about that last part. Come to think of it, I couldn't remember if I'd told Adam about it. I knew that Stefan was aware, though. "I can speak to most of the ghosts and spirits I see and a few times I've been able to control them. Order them around, so to speak." It felt odd to be explaining this all out loud where everyone could hear me and discuss the creepy things I was capable of. "I'm not Moon Called, meaning I dont have to change with the moon like the Werewolves do." I said. "I'm not aggressive and making the change into the Coyote is not at all painful. It just tingles a little."

She looked alright after that. I supposed someone should have gone over that with her a while ago...

"Okay..." She took my hand again and squeezed, sucking in a quick breath and holding it.

"Anything?" Stefan inquired. The wolves in the room were deathly silent.

"Nothing." she said, pushing out lungs of air.

Stefan hummed thoughtfully. "What were you feeling when you used your power the very first time? When it happened with the Magician?"

She thought hard, for a moment. "I... I remember him looking like he was having so much fun when he performed... When I met him, I remember I wished desperately to feel happiness like his, as I had none of my own."

I almost reached out to her. Her words made me feel so sad.

"And what about Adam? How did you feel when it happened with Adam?" Stefan pushed.

"Well, you've seen the man... He's an Alpha... He made me drop my eyes and look for a place to hide with nothing more that a sideways glance. I envy his strength. His power and superiority..." She wouldn't meet our eyes after saying that, and I admired her for admitting it. We didn't have to pull it from her like I thought we might. She was really trying to do this, though I knew it was hard for her. She isn't the kind of person who would just pour out the truth to anyone. Maybe if she was being sarcastic... but being truly honest and open like she was being, just wasn't very 'in character' for her.

"And me?" I asked her. "If you want to take my power, you've got to figure out what you want from _me._ What do I have that you want?"

"Something you want desperately." Stefan added. "Something you want to take from her. Something you feel that you need..."

"Well... you've got a car... It would be nice to have one of those, I guess."

"You'll have to do better than that." Adam stated.

"Much better." Stefan told her.

She thought hard and started suggesting things that I _did_ have this she didn'tbut I could tell, as could everyone else in the room, that she was beating around the bush. There was indeed something she wanted from me but it was something that she did not want to admit... Her eagerness to tell the truth and spill her guts had come to an end. It would be hard to get the truth of this out of her.

Stefan had started to raise his voice, ass raised as Stefan would, though. It wasn't like him to be very loud, but he _was _getting frustrated.

"Again." He demanded. "Try again."

For the first time in twenty minutes, Ruby said nothing. I felt a stab of something in my hand and sucked in a quick breath. Stefan looked at me, understanding that something had happened and he looked down at our joined hands.

"You have a home..." Ruby whispered. Her head was hung and her shoulders were tense.

Something pulsed through my arm and shot down through my leg. I winced. It wasn't painful, but it was so... weird and uncomfortable...

"A home..." Her whisper was quiet still, but it had changed into something rough and angry. "A place you can call your own..." She was growling and squeezing my hand tight. "You have food in your fridge," My hand was starting to hurt now and her voice was getting louder and louder. "and people to spend the holidays with..."

"Ruby..." I said. "You're squeezing too tight."

"So!" she looked up at me and shouted. "You have money! You can fix it if I break it!"

Stefan wasn't doing anything about it. I didn't blame him either, this was what we'd come down here to do. I didn't want a broken hand, I kinda liked it unbroken and perfectly intact, but if that was what had to happen for this process to go though, then so be it. Adam, however, was not on my same page.

"Ruby Talbot." He growled.

She didn't acknowledge him. Some part of Domina's power must still be inside her, not yet dissolved by the new power she was absorbing from me.

"You have a job!" she screamed. "It pays well and I bet your boss never tried to sell you to Vampires! _My _boss sold me to _Him_!" She turned and scowled at Stefan.

Something was off about her now. She looked dizzy and was blinking rapidly. The tingling in my arm and leg started to spread throughout my whole body as she continued on, shouting things she wanted from me.

"You have family!" She roared.

A jolt of energy shot through my arm and rolled over my entire being.

"And you have a man who loves you!"

The tingling stopped. "I think you've done it Ruby." I told her, but she didn't listen. She kept shouting things until Stefan tried to interject. By that time she was hysterical.

"Ruby..." Stefan started.

"Oh shut up!" She commanded.

And then the the strangest thing I'd ever seen in all my days happened...


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: Thank you to ZuliaGirl for all your reviews! You inspire me to keep up with this story and encourage me to push on... just wanted you to know that! **

**This chapter is dedicated to ZuliaGirl :)**

* * *

"And you have a man who loves you!" I don't think I'd ever been so mad in my entire life.

I stood there in the room, while all the Creatures stared at me, and squeezed the life out of Mercy's hand. The tingling had stopped flowing from Mercy, into me, and now there was something inside me. Something powerful that I had never known before. It swirled and whirled in my gut, pure energy bouncing around in my body, hyperactive and unrelenting in its pursuit to chew its way through all of my nerves. It had been gnawing at me ever since id felt it start to seep into me. I wasn't going to be able to take it much longer.

I was yelling other things, but my head was throbbing and I was so overwhelmed by what was going on inside me, that I don't even remember what I had said, only that Stefan interjected.

"Ruby..." He hummed.

I was irate. "Oh shut up!" I shouted. The strangest thing happened, then.

Something hit him. It was like a ripple of pure energy that pumped out of my being, thrusting into Stefan. It was clear, looking exactly like the heat waves on a scorching black top in the middle of Summer. No one else saw it but me... but they were about to witness the effects of what ever I'd just done, and so was I.

Stefan's face went completely blank, devoid of any emotion, and he stopped breathing. I didnt like that... When Stefan didn't breath he seemed, well, Dead. He started at me and I watched as his eyes glazed over. Gray and glossy, just like they had been when I'd screamed for him upon waking up as a wolf for the first time.

"Stefan?" Mercy's voice sounded horrified, though I couldn't look at her to really tell... I was too busy staring at the dead man in front of me and trying to figure out what the fuck I'd done. "Stefan, answer me?"

He turned his head to face her ever so slowly. I felt like it took him a year. "I answer to the Master, and the Master only..." He turned back to me just as slowly as he'd moved before and lowered himself to his knees.

I watched, mortified, as he spoke his next words to me in the richest Italian accent I'd ever heard in all my life.

"I protect you, Master, with my mind, my flesh...

I obey your commands, no more and no less...

Unless I'm set free we will never part...

Bonds never broken, unless staked through my heart..."

His words were final and official sounding. It was as if his words were memorized in case of just such an occasion. Like they were meant for this reason and this reason only.

"Stefan?" I squeaked.

"Yes Master?" He sounded almost infatuated.

"Stefan... please.." My syllables came out in quiet, frightened barks of air. "W-What are you doing?"

"I protect you, Master, with my mind, my fl-"

"Stop!" I cut him off. The Were's had started to gather around us defensively. Ben was at my side, his arm stretched out in front of me defensively. "Stop this!"

"Stop what?" His gray eyes, full of age and death, stared up at me blankly.

"Stop with this... obeying thing!" I was scared.

"Do you set me free then?" he asked me. I could almost say he seemed sad.

"Yes."

"Say it, then." He frowned at me.

"Stefan I set you free..."

"Say it with my Sir name as well." He explained, and I noticed that this was the first time id ever talked to him when he didn't conceal his fangs. They were long. Longer than Andre's, and razor sharp. I wondered if his meals ever felt them break the skin.

I looked around. "I don't know it." I told all the Monsters. Mercy leaned to whisper something into my ear. I took a deep breath. "Stefan Uccello, I set you free..."

He made a croaking sound and collapsed completely. I ducked under Ben's arm and knelt beside Stefan.

"Stefan?" I nudged him.

He opened his eyes and looked around as if he'd never seen the safe room before. His eyes were their normal dark chocolate brown. "What happened? Why am I on the ground?" He disappeared and then reappeared standing up straight.

"I don't know what I did..." I told him.

"You did this?" He roared, snapping his head to face me as I stood.

"I didn't mean to. It just sorta happened..."

He became frantic and started to pace the room quickly. "Fuck, fuck, fuck..." I didn't think I'd ever heard him swear before that.

"What is it?" Mercy asked him.

He appeared in front of Mercy with his hands on her shoulders. Adam and Ben growled at him and he removed his hands. "This is why Marsilia would kill you if you were not kin to the Marrok." He hissed. "This is why she loathes you so. This is why the Vampire hunted your kind for so many years... Why we fear you."

"What is he talking about?" I asked Mercy.

Mercy closed her eyes softly and thought for a long moment. "When I was captured by Blackwood," She spoke quietly, almost whispering. "He turned my friend into a Zombie... I used the power I normally use to talk to ghosts, on her. I used my power to convince her she was dead so that she would be free of Blackwood. I controlled her..."

"Who's Blackwood?" My question was ignored.

"And do you know why?" Stefan asked Mercy. All of the others, and myself, were leaned forward, listening intently.

"I knew it would work. She's was dead. I've always been able to tamper with the dead... on some level." She said matter-of-factly.

"And what am I?" Stefan coaxed.

She raised her brow. "You're a Vam-" She stopped short and glanced over Stefan's shoulder at me, looking horrified, and then back at our Vampire. "You're dead..."

"I am."

"Could all Walkers do this?" Warren drawled. "Enslave your kind like that?" His voice was shaky.

"Yes. They could."

"Why didn't you tell me?" Mercy asked him. "Why didn't y-"

"Because as long as you did not know, Marsilia promised to leave you be. If I told you, she and the rest of the Seethe would attack. You all know good and well how that would end."

"A war." I deduced. "There's no way the Marrok would stand for it. He'd have his Were's down here and ready to slay every Vampire in sight."

"Even a small war... If it included the Marrok... If someone got hurt... If Mercy got hurt..." Darrell continued. "That would stir up every Wolf in the country."

"A blood bath." Stefan stated.

"One race would be wiped from the continent for sure." Ben added. "Not all Wolves have as much control as our Alpha." He nodded to Adam respectfully. "Once the lesser of us started... Once the bleeding started... There would be no stopping us." It sounded a lot like he was talking about himself.

Stefan winced suddenly, and it wasn't because of what Ben had said.

"What is it?" Mercy placed a concerned hand on Stefan's neck. Adam growled his disapproval, but Mercy ignored him.

"My Mistress calls me." Stefan pulled her hand from his neck and caressed it sweetly before letting it fall beside her.

I was jealous of that little gesture and I think I glared. I must have, and Ben must have seen it because he took a small but possessive step closer to me and placed a hand on my shoulder. I looked up at him and furrowed my brows. I don't think he'd even realized what he'd done, for he looked at the way he was standing, wide eyed, and then stalked to the back of the room.

"I thought you weren't _attached_ to her the way other Vampires are to their makers." Mercy said.

"I am not..." he said gravely. "But that doesn't mean she still does not feel when something has happened to me. She calls for me now, and If I do not go she will find me. Here is not a place you'll want her poking around." He looked over his shoulder and eyed me. "I trust you all to tell only whom you see fit about what has happened." And then he vanished.

All eyes bore into me right at that moment. I felt queasy...


	12. Chapter 12

**Hello! I havent posted in forever! Haha, well here yuh go! To say sorry for NEVER posting, I've created a treat for you. Its kinda corny, but is does tie into the story. So... without further or due... CHAPTER 12!**

**:)**

I stayed at Adam's that night. I don't think I really wanted to, but I was so confused... so upset. I didn't feel like moving. I glanced at the clock face over Adam's dining room table where I sat as a soft set of feet crept down the hall stairs. 4:37 A.M.

Whoever was coming closer was unknown. Without my Werewolf senses to guide me, I felt almost naked. I couldn't smell anything. Couldn't hear anything. Couldn't hear my sister... I'd been trying for hours to find her, hoping she was just buried under thoughts and mind mass. But no. She was gone. Tears fill my eyes and threatened to spill onto my cheeks as a man came to stand behind me. Two big, white knuckled hands pressed cautiously on either side of mine onto the dark oak table. His face nuzzled tiredly into my hair. He kneaded my skull with his nose. Smelling me. Learning me.

"You're still awake." He whispered into my ear, his voice warm and moist like dark, liquid velvet. It wasn't a question.

"Ben," My voice sounded tired. "I am not in the mood for your creepy shit right now." Even with my dulled, almost human senses, I could still smell that sweetness. "Leave me alone."

His quiet laughter rumbled against my head. The new stubble on his chin scratched my neck. "And what if I don't want to?" He asked.

"Then things are going to get very, very violent."

He stiffened and then relaxed against me again. "You cant do anything to me." His voice was like

gravel. "You're just a coyote now."

He nuzzled his face into my hair again and bit my ear. No. He didn't nibble it. He bit it. Bit down enough for it to hurt. "Hey!" I hissed, whispering as loud as I could without waking the house. I stood and pushed away from him, backing up towards the entrance to the living room. "What the fuck was that?"

He stood there in a pair of black boxers and a crisp new wife beater that clung to his torso. Flattering. I stared at that a moment. Jackass or not, Ben had a stomach to die for. But I didn't want to stare at his body. That would only encourage him. I jerked my gaze to his face but didn't find a view that was any less aggravating. A bit of crimson liquid striped down the middle of his bottom lip. I scowled and he smiled devilishly. No teeth, just an arrogant spread of soft pink lips.

"Is that my-" I reached up to touch my stinging ear. I pulled my hand away and sure enough, there was blood on my hand.

His tongue snaked out slowly to lick the blood from his lip. "Aren't you just..." He hummed a tasteful sound deep and low as he rolled his shoulders. A very inhuman gesture. "..delicious..."

When he took a step towards me, I took a step back. I wanted to run but I knew I shouldn't. He would certainly chase me down. If he did that, there was no telling what would become of me. I couldn't help but walk, though. My fight or flight instincts were kicking in and wouldn't allow me to stand still another second. I kept walking backwards. Slowly. He kept coming. Faster and faster. I wanted to match his speed so he'd never reach me but I didn't get the chance. I'd backed up into the darkness of the living room already and fell over the arm of Adams couch before I knew it. My butt was on the first couch cushion and I was propping myself up on my elbows, legs and feet dangling over the couch arm. He took a giant, silent leap and landed right in front of the arm I'd fallen over. His eyes roamed over me. Imagining things. Horribly naughty things. I wanted to kick him square in the nuts but I knew he'd catch my leg before I made contact.

He lifted the wife beater over his head and smirked down at me, tossing his top to the floor. I took a deep breath, trying not to let fear take me but it was no use. He closed his eyes and took in a chest full of air. I stared at him in the sandy dim light, his body almost a silhouette in front of the kitchen light. His dirty-blonde hair didn't have any gel in it. This time it was actual bed head and the light. His shoulders were broad and muscular, his stomach tanned a light brown, rippling with ripe muscle and strength. The bluish light of very early morning was starting to shine through the curtains and it caressed his chest like fog. A soft trail of darker hair ran from his belly button down passed the waistband of his black boxers. My eyes wanted to stare at it, to follow it but I shook my head and looked back up to his face. His eyes fluttered open and glowing amber eyes stared down at me lustfully. He began to climb onto the couch.

"Ben..." I whispered my protest and stared towards the stairs, hoping someone would wake and catch him. I hoped someone would stop him.

"Ruby..." He crawled on top of me.

I crab walked backwards, away from him. He pushed his face into the soft flesh of my stomach and I froze. The last thing I wanted was to have no super strength and a rapist werewolf's face pressed into my stomach. You know... where all my guts are... I knew what he wanted from me. His intentions were as clear as day but I didn't want to be the one to tell him no. I didn't want him to change his mind and decide to devour me instead.

"Ben, stop it..." I whispered.

He pulled up the tiny black tank top I'd put on to sleep in and rubbed his face against my skin. His tongue dipped in and around my belly button. Groaning softly, quietly, he moved up to kiss the skin over my ribs lazily. He kept kissing. Sloppy. Slow.

"Ben.." I put my hands on his head to still him.

He looked up at me, puzzled. "You... don't... want me?"

"No..." I told him softly.

"Lies." His face wrinkled a little. "I smell you. You want me.. I know you do." His accent was thick and he sounded angry.

As much as I hated to admit it, as much as I didn't understand it, I think I did want him. He was... kinda.. well, he was hot. I never thought of him that way before. But I guess before I hadn't seen him almost naked and he wasn't running his tongue across my bare skin...

"I want you to get off of me and go back to sleep." That was the truth. He would know that for sure.

"Why?" He was in wolf mode now. His sentences were short. His voice abrupt. Stomach growling. Crotch swelling.

_Shit..._

"If you don't get off of me right this instant. I will-"

"What?" He was angry. No doubt about it.

"I'll scream." I told him. "After that you can do what you want with me. But you know good and god damned well that Adam would come down here and what ever you did, he'd make you pay for.

He growled at me. A sound that, even though I'd heard a growl before, was so much scarier coming from a human body. He wrinkled his nose and his lips pulled away from his teeth, exposing canines much sharper than they should have been. Crawling up to look down into my eyes, he rested all of his weight on me, the bulge in his boxers pressing against my crotch. I stiffened and put my hands on his chest to keep him away from me.

Aside from Stefan, when had a handsome man ever been this close to me? Never. All men I've ever met included, when had any handsome man ever shown me this much... enthusiasm? Never. Ever. I didn't like Ben. I thought he was rude. Cruel. Horrible. Not to mention he'd been accused of rape. But I _did_ like what he was offering me. Looking up at him now I could see that he was, in all honesty, very, very attractive. He was warm. Beautiful. He offered closeness. Pleasure. Ecstasy. I wanted it. Needed it. But did I really want to wake up in the morning and find him next to me? No absolutely not. The thought itself was hilarious. I didn't love him, so I wouldn't sleep with him.

I couldn't imagine loving him anyways. Really? Me and Ben? Just think of it.

_Ben, my love, how was your day?_

_Oh just fine,_ he'd answer, _Woke up this morning and caught a deer for breakfast. Went off to work and flipped off a few old women. Stayed at the office a few hours before I got bored and left. Raped a few scared bitches before I came home. How about your day?_

Oh yes. How fucking wholesome and lovely we'd be together. Not. I didn't want him. I wanted Stefan. He was a vampire, yes. He had shown me a bit of his not-so-attractive vampire side, yes, and it really pissed me off. Really. He was flawed. So what, right? I was flawed too. Good god was I flawed. We could be flawed together. It would be so much easier to love Stefan, wouldn't it? Besides, Stefan seemed to actually _care._ Ben was... Ben. And we all know just how much Ben cares about women. I could imagine being happy with Stefan... Or could I...

_Hey Stefan, How's life... err... Death...?_

_Wonderful Ruby. I woke this night and climbed out of my coffin in the basement. I fed off the creepy humans in my home and then left to stalk the innocent with my dead friends. After a few hours of scaring the living shit out of people with my creepy teleportation, I stopped by Marsilia's place to say Hi to her, Edward the psycho and Andre, you know, The one I'm friends with. The one who tried to rape and drain you._

Eek. Let's compare the two later. I had bigger, more immediate problems to deal with. Like that fact that Ben had started to dry hump me.

"Ben. I'm going to count to three. After that I'll-"

He kissed me. It didn't feel like a kiss though. More of a 'I'm-covering-your-mouth-with-mine-because-I-know-you're-gonna-scream' kinda thing. Besides, he seemed to need his hands for more important things... like pulling a thumb down on the elastic of my sweat pants. I bucked, trying to roll him off of me but he pushed down on me with his body and brought his hands up to circle my wrists above my head.

_Well, now..._ I thought. _My pants aren't completely down so at least he cant rape me this way._

He could kiss me though. Damn it. I wriggled under him but it was no use. His mouth was still. Closed. No disgusting invasion of Werewolf tongue or saliva. I opened my eyes, though I don't remember closing them, and found that he was staring down at me. Ek. It felt really awkward. He made like he was going to remove his lips, but when I tensed to scream he pushed back down. We went back and forth like that for about two minutes before I finally decided not to scream. Maybe he had something to tell me.

"Kiss me and I'll let you go."

I snorted. "What?"

"Kiss me and I'll get off of you. I'll go upstairs. I'll go to sleep."

Why did he spend the night anyhow? He had his truck. He could have gone home. Maybe he'd stayed because I was hear. Damn. "You'd do that. You'd leave me the fuck alone for one little kiss?" The grin he gave me told me it wasn't going to be a _little _kiss. "God damn it, Ben." I was angry.

"You make out with me and I'll go back to bed." He smiled.

"Make out? But you said-"

"I changed my mind, obviously." He rolled his eyes and then stared back down at me.

I sighed. "Fine." I didn't want to do it. Well... that was a lie. I did want it. But it was Ben, for gods sake. Sexy or not, it was... _Ben_... Gross. Kinda.

"Good..." He drew the word out soft and long and didn't stop the sound until his lips met mine. It was a peck. A quick little kiss before he ran his tongue across my lips. Once. Twice. Three times. Then the real kissing started and it became very apparent, very soon, that Ben most certainly did _not _kiss like Stefan.

I could count the times I'd kissed Stefan on one hand. When we kissed, he didn't make much noise. Of course there was that soft smacking and gentle sucking that you always hear when kissing, but aside from a few breaths and a hum or two, Stefan was completely silent. Ben, on the other hand, made a lot of noise. His kissing was slow, but hard and enthusiastic. A single kiss lasted a long while, but he moved his head a lot during a kiss. He sucked my lips and nibbled. If I didn't know him better, I'd say he was being playful. Cute, almost. I kissed him back, hesitant and scared. I had to kiss him. I had to. I'd agreed to it. I relaxed a little and snuggled into the couch.

His lips were soft. Smooth. Easy to kiss. I liked them, I guessed. I didn't think I'd ever tell him that, but it was true. Though I think I enjoyed the wonderful thought of kissing a sexy man than the actual man I was kissing. When his tongue brushed against my mouth he froze. It was like he was afraid. But he'd been the one to do it, why would he be afraid? He pulled back to stare at me.

_Is that alright? _That look said to me. _Can we do that? Is it okay?_

_Well, haha... um, yeah_. I thought. _If I'm gonna get off this couch we have to, dont we..._

I stared at his confused face and ignored the innocence I noticed there. I parted my lips slightly in invitation and let him enter my mouth. His tongue swam inside and tasted me. All of me. The feeling of his tongue against mine was strange. Foreign.

He pulled away for no longer than a second to say, "Touch me." Then he moved to suck on the pulse in my neck, releasing my wrists and burying his fingers in my hair.

"What? Where?" I gasped dizzily at the dark dimness.

"I dont care." He said, kissing down to my collar bone, up my throat and around to my jaw. "Don't care where you touch me. Just want to feel your hands on my skin." He started to nibble my ear lobe... the one he hadnt bitten.

"No." I told him. This make out session is over."

"Please." He sighed into my ear. His voice was sad and painful.

_Whoa... Where the fuck did douche bag Ben just go?_

I didnt care how upset he sounded. "No."

He raised himself up to look at me. "Please..." I couldnt ignore the innocence in his eyes now. He looked like a little boy who'd fallen and scraped a knee. He needed a hug. He needed touch. Closeness. Damn it.

I reached down and pressed fingertips to each side of his ribcage. It sent a shiver down his spine and through harder parts of him. I wrapped my arms around him slowly and he relaxed on me completely, kissing me again. He stopped soon, though, and pulled away to stare down at me, licking his lips as if he could taste me on them.

"What?" I asked.

"Nothing." He sat up and lept over the back of the couch and out of sight. "Good night." He told me.

"Good riddance." I thought ending our "encounter" on a sour note might make me feel less awkward the next time I saw him.

His face appeared above me. "Dream of my naked body." He smirked and dodged my punch.

"Fuck you." I hissed.

"That's the idea." He laughed, walking up the stairs. I heard a door open and close and something heavy collapse onto a bed.

_What an asshole._

I rolled over on the couch. Crossing my arms I closed my eyes and sighed against the leather back of the couch. Hot breath bounced off the leather and came back to envelope my face. It felt nice. Warm. I pressed my fingertips to my lips and remembered the way it felt to kiss him. I had enjoyed myself. I'll admit to myself that I really did like the feel of him on top of me. Hormones are a wonderful thing... sometimes. I just had to remember that I wanted his body. Not him. I worried about him, though. About the little boy I'd seen in his eyes. They way he'd acted was so... odd. So abrupt. Strange.

I let out another breath of air. I didnt feel like getting up. Didnt feel like turning the kitchen light out. I was exhausted now. So, I slept there...

**Tada! New chapter coming in a few days! :)**


	13. Authors Note

Hello!

SheWhoRunsWithWolves here. I havent been updating and I'm so sorry for that. I just wanted to leave an authors note to let you guys know that I havent abandoned this story :)

Chapter 13 is in progress! I will update in a day or so if not tonight :)


	14. Chapter 13

The next day flew by like a snail race. Ben was no where to be seen, Adam and the rest of the wolves had found that receiving cautious glares from unfriendly werewolves was something that I did not enjoy and I wasn't allowed to see Jesse until Mercy was satisfied with my Coyote shifting. The safe room was cold, my skin was crawling, I was naked and so was Mercy.

When She'd finally decided that I understood well enough how her shifting worked and I knew how my abilities worked, she let me put my robe on.

"We've been down here for ten hours. Go get some chow and we'll practice some more tomorrow morning." She said. I slipped into the white robe she'd let me borrow and tied it tight. I couldn't look at her. I knew it was Mercy. I knew that. But there's just something about being completely naked in front of someone that makes me so ashamed. I smirked, thinking that Domina didn't mind it much.

_Domina._ I hadn't made it to the stairs yet when the pain of my sister's absence stopped me and watered in my eyes.

Mercy rushed to my side. "What's wrong?" Still nude, she wrapped arms around me to keep me standing. I looked up and her and she mirrored my pain even though she didn't know why I cried. "What is it?" She gave me a shake.

"My sister." I sobbed. "I cant find her. I can't find her in my head. She's disappeared along with my lycanthropy. Gone." I cried.

She held me close. "I didn't realize you loved her so much..." She whispered, long dark hair tickling my nose as she spoke.

"Me neither." I said. "I thought I wanted her to go away. I thought she was no good but she loved me. She really did. I knew last night that I was going to miss her so much but now that she isn't here I cant believe how much I want her back... I can't believe how empty I feel."

Just then the heavy door at the top of the stairs creaked open and a deep familiar voice spoke to us. "Safe to come down?" Adam asked.

I was covered and Mercy was naked but she called him to us. "Yeah." She said. "She's got a robe on."

Adam stalked down the stairs while I pulled away from his mate and put my mind back together.

"You were crying?" He asked.

I nodded. There was no use hiding it, I mean, I'm sure my eyes were puffy and wet and my nose pink. "I think Domina has left me for good. I miss her very much." I didn't like that the very people I'd been tough and ruthless in front of were seeing me fall apart the way I was.

As if he could read my mind, he said. "Dry your eyes them and show the others you are still strong." I stared at him wide eyed. "I know better than most how it feels to lose a friend." He went on. "To lose someone you care about because of closed-minded people who are higher up on the food chain and don't give a damn about the peons." The fact that he'd cursed said how serious he was.

"Marsilia..." I growled.

"The government..." He said to himself.

I let out a shaky breath I hadn't known I'd been holding and wiped my eyes. "Thanks for the encouragement, Adam." I said and nodded at them both before going upstairs.

To my delight, there were no curious werewolves waiting to greet me with questions I was too hungry and tired to answer, but a worried looking Jesse sitting at the dining table next to a couple of In N Out bags.

"It's Five." She said smiling, though there was something different about her. Something cautious. "I thought you'd be hungry."

I came to hug her and she stiffened as I held her, hunching over her sitting body. "You are the most precious person in my life now..." I whispered.

"That's what I was afraid of..." Her voice was small. She turned to look up at me and I let her go to take a seat in the wooden chair next to her. "Dad mentioned to me this morning that Domina might be lost."

"I cant find her anywhere..." I said.

"Also..." She paused and seemed reluctant to continue.

"What?"

"I was in my room last night when I heard Domina and that other Vampire fighting outside. I watched it through my window. I saw what happened and..." She sniffled. "I saw you, or Domina, hurt him so badly. I saw him writhe in pain and the smile on your face while you did it. It made me afraid to come down to see you when you came inside." She gulped and stared straight into my eyes. "I didn't go to you before they pulled you into the safe room! They looked so spooked when they came out and I thought something terrible had happened to you! I thought maybe they'd punished you for letting Domina out and I would never see you again!"

"Jesse!" I said. "I'm fine, though. And If you feel afraid of me for what happened I underst-"

"No. I'm not afraid anymore. Dad told me what he did to you. He told me why you hurt him the way you did. What I'm trying to do is apologize."

I was taken aback by that. 'W-why would you-"

"Because I thought of you as one of the monsters... I thought of you as one of the bad guys when I should have known that you are good and even Domina wouldn't hurt that man without cause. I forgot her promise that she made to Dad, to only come out if your life or mine was in danger. I should have known that Domina showing her face meant that that man wanted to hurt you... If I had remembered and not jumped to conclusions..." She wiped her eyes furiously and I felt tears streaming down my cheeks. I didn't remember starting to cry. "Dad said you were so sad down in that safe room. Maybe if I'd just come down stairs to see if you were okay, to hug you and make you feel better, you wouldn't have been so sad and alone down there..."

I didn't know what to say. I never even had the thought to be angry with Jesse. I didn't even think about her after Domina gave me back and I guess that if I'd hugged Jesse before I went down I might not have been as sad but... she didn't do anything wrong by not coming to me. Nothing wrong at all.

"Jesse I'm not mad... I..." I thought for a moment. "It was hard down there but I know we're friends. Last night was so confusing, but I didn't feel like you abandoned me in a time of need or anything like that... Is that what you think you did?" She just stared at me and looked to forlorn, so I hugged her. "We're best buds for life Jesse. From the moment I first saw you I knew you would be a good person and we would get along. You didn't abandon me... You didn't let me down..."

"Really?"

"Really, really." I said.

Twenty minutes later we were sitting up on Adams roof chowing down on delicious burgers, fresh fries and slurping soda.

"Congratulations!" she said. "You made out with the rapist!"

"Fuck you, Jesse..." I growled.

She hooted. "There's the famous attitude! I was wondering if it was ever going to come back." She scarfed some fries and slurped her drink cup down to a empty rattle. "So spill it. Was it fantastic?"

I thought about my kissing session with Ben for a moment, remembering the way he'd looked at me, the weight of his body moving on mine, the feeling of his soft lips against my own. "Well, it was..."

"It was...?" She was leaning close to me as if the closer she got the more exciting and entertaining my answer would be. Like the closer her ears were to my mouth the faster I'd answer her.

I sighed. "It was pretty great I guess."

She laughed. "Awesome! So, details please!"

"There are no details. We kissed and it wont happen again. I want Stefan, that's it. There's no room for an over zealous English wolf-man in my life."

"Oh Ruby that's no fair! Tell me about it! And anyways, why not pay Ben a little more attention, huh? He's cute and you cant narrow yourself down to just one guy. You gotta open your mind to all the possibilities!" She spread her arms wide to the darkening sky as she said 'possibilities'.

"Do you realize how red Adam's face would turn if he heard you talking like a pro about leaving yourself open to the possibilities of potential lover candidates? Do you know how fucking violent he'd get if he found out that one of the men being discussed was Ben?"

She laughed out load. "He'd have a cow!"

"No, Jesse..." I said. "He'd shit bricks of steel..." That made me laugh.

"Nice try, subject changer. Now tell me about your kiss!"

"No."

"Then can I ask questions?"

I snorted. "You can ask..."

She didn't take that as sarcastically as I wanted her too. "Did he make sounds?"

That made me blush. "I'm not answering that, Jesse..."

She eyed me. "So that's a yes, then... Now, how'd you do it? Did you sit on his lap?"

"Jesse!"

"What?" she frowned.

"I am done with questions!"

"Answer just this one and I'll stop..."

I glared at her. "No you wont..."

"Nope" She grinned at me and then asked again.

I sighed. "Well... we were on the couch..."

"And?" she started leaning again.

"And he took his shirt off..."

"OooOooh... and then?"

"And then he crawled on top of me and refused to leave until I made out with him..."

"Ahh! That's hot!" Then she covered her eyes, laid back and banged her heels against the roof. "I wish my boyfriend would do that!"

I thought for a moment. "I wish Stefan would do that..." We both laughed.

"So what are you gonna do about the two of them?" she asked me.

"I told you already. " I said. "There's no room for Ben. I want Stefan. That's who I've decided on."

"But does Ben know that?"

"He should. I made it very clear to him last night that his kissing stunt was not appreciated."

"You say that like you think 'Ben' is just going to back off immediately. You know he wont." She didn't speak of the matter like she was concerned, more like she was having a blast watching the problem bloom into full blown T.V. drama.

"I know he wont." Unfortunately, that was the truth. "But you don't suppose he might just magically turn into a good guy and stay away from me, do you?" My voice was thick with sarcasm as I spoke, staring at her and blinking my eyes sweetly.

She flicked my nose. "Nope! Its a love triangle girl!"

"Hurray for me..." I mumbled.

We enjoyed silence together for while, enjoying the view of trees and driveway beside Adam's house. The sunset was just starting to glow when Ben's truck pulled up to the house. He didn't spot us at first, stepping out of his truck and slamming it shut before bending over to check his hair in his side view mirror.

Jesse giggled softly and I hushed her, trying to hold in my own laugh. "He wants to look good for his lovah..." Jesse whispered.

"Oh, shut up..." I chuckled.

We stilled and went completely silent when Ben stiffened and looked around. He'd heard us and he wouldn't have seen where we were if the wind wouldn't have carried our scent towards him.

He straightened and turned to face us, searching for us too low at first, giving me a chance to look him over. He was wearing a pair of attractive old jeans, some black slip-on Vans and a tight black V-neck sweater. His hair was a blond tousled mess, like last night and fresh stubble sprinkled along his beautiful jaw. I was admiring his shoulders when his face raised to spot us on the roof.

"Hello Ladies." He said. _Ladies? Not whores or cows? Wow... he's trying._ Jesse had caught the change in attitude too and we glanced at each other as he continued. "Does Adam know you're on his roof?"

Jesse cleared her throat. "Dis _mah_ house, Ben..."

I snorted at her attempt at a ghetto accent and watched Ben wrinkle his nose. Either he thought the joke was dumb or he didn't understand it.

"Aren't you two cold up there?" He asked as I wondered if I'd ever tell him that his accent was sorta cute. I thought it made him seem little less menacing. Maybe I'd say something about it one day to piss him off. That would be fun...

I looked down and the holed skinny jeans, gladiator sandals and thin long-sleeved shirt I wore and wondered if I was getting cold. It was chilly out and dropping steadily, but no... I most certainly was not cold enough to climb down and say hello to Ben.

"Nope." I said. "We're just fine." He smirked at me and leaned against his truck as I picked up my white and red soda cup and sucked down some Sprite. "So you gotta reason to be here, Brit?"

He laughed. "Isn't coming to visit you a good enough reason to stop by?"

"Uh, no. Not even fucking close."

"Aw, don't be like that..." He pushed off of his truck and walked as close to the house as he could and still see our faces. I could smell Old Spice from where he stood. I could also smell that sweetness. "I know you enjoy my company, Love."

Jesse choked on fries laughing. I elbowed her in the side and she shut up. "No." I said. "Never have, never will." _A lie..._

"Never have, never will..." He repeated to himself. "Well, then. I'll just have to remedy that, wont I?" He winked at me and then walked into the house and shut the door.

Jesse squeaked and fell backwards again. "Wow... He's hotter than I thought he was!"

I glared down at her. "What part of that was attractive or hot to you? All that was was inflamed ego and confidence wearing a tight sweater..."

"A soft-looking, sexy, 'look at my muscles' sweater." She laughed. "For god's sake did you get a look at his shoulders in that?"

I blushed because yes, I had gotten a great look at his shoulders... and his chest... and stomach... Oh hell.. I sighed. "Okay, okay. I am willing to admit that he's attractive-"

She cut me off with, "Hot. You're willing to admit that he's really hot."

"Fine." I growled. "I'm willing to admit that he's really hot. But that in no way means that I want to be his woman, got that? I want Stefan, not the British Douche-bag."

"Alright, alright..." She said.

I clasped my arms behind my head and laid back beside her. "And besides," I said. "Stefan's a good kisser too..."

I looked over to find her grinning at me. "And when did that happen?"

"Days ago." I smiled. "And last night in the safe room before Ben got to me."

"And?"

"And it was lovely..." I sighed happily.

"Excellent."

**Ben's P.O.V.**

I was sipping a beer from my alpha's fridge when I realized the Kitchen window was ajar and I could hear them chatting outside.

"Hot." Jesse laughed. "You're willing to admit that he's really hot."

"Fine." Ruby growled. "I'm willing to admit that he's really hot." _Damn right I am._ "But that in no way means that I want to be his woman, got that? I want Stefan, not the British Douche-bag."

_Ah... So harsh... _I thought to myself. Ruby was harsh. She was tough and she was insulting. I supposed she was a good Gal, too, but what I really liked about her was her fearlessness. Her anger. Too many women were soft and sweet. I liked my women feisty. I liked them feisty and ready to brawl. Ruby Talbot was that woman and I wanted her. The way she acted, the way she shoots me down and tells me '_No_'. I shivered at the thought of her. Her scent. The feeling of her beneath me.

"Alright, alright..." It was Jesse.

"And besides," My Ruby said. "Stefan's a good kisser too..."

I stifled a growl and felt my wolf bleed into my eyes. _I can't believe he touched her..._ I thought.

"And when did that happen?"

"Days ago." _Bloody hell..._ "And last night in the safe room before Ben got to me."

"And?"

"And it was lovely..." She sounded content... _Fuck contentment..._ I thought ruefully.

"Excellent." Jesse said.

It was decided, then. I would have her. Stefan would lose this match and I would have Ruby Talbot.


	15. Chapter 14

**Stefan's P.O.V.**

Ben was in the kitchen leaning against the counter when I arrived at Adam's home with terrible news.

"Steven." He nodded at me as I passed him to go to Mercy who was in the living room.

"Stefan..." I corrected. The bastard knew my name. I knew he did but I didn't cause a fuss. I just kept walking. I wouldn't stoop to his level and shout at him, I would beat him by winning Ruby Talbot. "How are things going?" I asked Mercy.

"She's good. Sleeping actually." She told me, curled on the couch like she usually was, reading.

"Ah."

"We practice for almost twelve hours today. She did great."

_How busy they've been._ I was proud. "I'm not surprised she's exhausted, then." I laughed. "And how are you?"

She yawned and smiled at me. "Just as tired, haha."

I laughed and came to sit next to her. "Where are the others?"

"Adam and Jesse left as soon as Ruby went to bed. Charles said Anna was missing Jesse and Adam and Bran needed to talk shop." She told me.

I hummed in acknowledgment and stared towards the stairs, feeling Benjamin's eyes on me. I needed to tell the wolves of my conversation with my mistress but the alpha wasn't home. Mercy was too tired for me to dare stress her out with the weight of it, and I was to stressed myself to want to go into it... Even more than that, I had hoped to see Ruby tonight. I knew she had forgiven me for trying to bite her the other night, I'd seen the truth of it in Domina's eyes but I knew I needed to say it to Ruby.

"Stefan?" Mercy touched my arm. I looked at her. "She's in the guest room. You can check on her if you like."

_Was it really so obvious that I longed to see her?_ I smiled at Mercy and then reached to give her hand a loving squeeze. "Thank you. " I said. "I'd like that very much."

She nodded and I stood and headed for the guest room, catching Ben's glare along the way. I was happy to see him so upset and so I let him see the small smile on my lips as soon as I knew Mercy couldn't see. _Serves him right._ I thought.

When I'd made my way up stairs and around the corner, I stood before the guest room door in the dim, almost darkness of the hallway, listening. I could hear the quiet beat of her human heart on the other side, the soft hiss of her breath against her pillow. I opened the door slightly, as quietly as I could manage and peered inside.

A stream of the softest of light crossed the room and showed her to me. She lay there among the white sheets, different from the dark blue ones that were there when we'd shared that bed... when I had kissed her. Most of the bedding was lost to the floor and I could see her well. Her smooth, tanned thighs showed below the shortness of her satin sleeping pants and the little white tank top she'd put on had shimmied its way up to the bottom of her breasts so that I could see her lovely stomach. I smiled to myself. She was beautiful. It was then that I wondered if I would be so attracted to her if Ben weren't after her as well.

_Would I want her this much if I thought no one else did? Surely I would... Did Benjamin's interest in her make the hunt for Ruby more exiting? Without a doubt. _I thought.

I did like this girl. I was sure that I did. Funny how I felt I had to keep analyzing the situation, though. I supposed I just didn't want to hurt her heart. She was strong but... She was still a young girl. Love to her and love to me were two different things. Maybe she had loved, maybe she never had, I didn't know. But I had loved. I had loved dearly and I had lost my lover so many years ago... More than a century has passed between then and the now and it is no longer in my nature to love blindly, to love fiercely and unconditionally. But I can care. I can still love sweetly, tenderly enough and care and protect. Maybe not as she can or as she will, but I knew we could be happy... Maybe, though there could be nothing for us if Marsilia found out. I knew that for sure.

The sudden change in her heart rate pulled me from my thoughts. Her heart started to race. Her breath came faster than before. I watched as she turned from her side onto her back and writhed. I was glad that I had fed before coming to see her, for if I had not, watching her move as she did would have been unbearable.

I wondered what she was dreaming of. Sweat beaded on her chest, stomach and temples and I ached to know who was with her in her dreams. I gripped the door nob tight and wanted to know where her minds thoughts had taken her. Suddenly she gasped and arched her back, whispering something softly... and then I knew...

"_Stefan..._" She whimpered, and before I knew it I had appeared beside her. Not by choice. I surely felt the dieing need to step into the room after seeing her move that way, of course, after knowing it was me she yearned for... any man would. But there was a power in her voice that I could not disobey... and so I appeared beside her, the door still slightly cracked behind me, and stared down at her as she thought of me...

**Ruby's P.O.V.**

I dreamed of him. I dreamed of his lips on my mouth, my flesh. I dreamed that he held me, touched every part of me and that I was free to roam and explore every inch of his perfect body while he dripped with sweat and moaned with pleasure... I dreamed that he took me and it was the greatest feeling I had ever experienced in my whole entire life.

I woke to a dark room. The door was cracked slightly and the shyest, dimmest of light peeked inside. I was on my back staring up at the ceiling and even the little light that I had combined with my coyote vision couldn't make me see clearly in the darkness.

I'd just had one of the best dreams ever but still I frowned up at the black. To wake and find that it had all been my imagination, that it had all been in my head and that he hadn't really been there touching me... pleasing me... It felt so utterly lonely to lay there in that sweaty bed, in that darkened, empty room. I reached over to my right to stroke the vacant pillow beside me. I touched my lips and tried to remember the way he had kissed my while I slept and took a deep breath... That's when I smelled him.

It was that musty smell from Marsilia's, but it wasn't overwhelming... just faint. Even stronger was the scent of cologne and popcorn... the good buttery kind.

I turned my head to my left and could just barely make out a long pair of legs wrapped in dark jeans. When I looked up I found eyes like crimson jewels staring down at me. A Vampire. Stefan. It had to be him. I knew his scent... and he had to have seen me dream of him... He couldn't have come in after I woke. I hoped he'd teleported there just then but somehow I couldn't believe that. He'd seen... He'd seen...

I was going to say something but when I opened my mouth, nothing came out. My unbearable embarrassment and intense shame had rendered me speechless. I could do nothing but look up at him as my blood boiled and my eyes began to water.

Those red glowing eyes came towards me as he lowered himself to his knees beside the bed and spoke. "Ruby..."

I hid my face in my hands and curled into a ball. _There cant be a single thing in all of this world that is more embarrassing than this moment... _I felt his fingers slide around my wrists and pull. I resisted at first but couldn't any longer when he said my name again in a voice I'd never heard him use before.

"Ruby..." He rumbled. "Do not hide yourself from me. Not now... please." He pulled my hands away and leaned into me close enough that I could see his face.

He looked hungry... very, very hungry. "You saw..." I whispered to him.

He blinked slowly. "I saw... yes." And then he climbed onto the bed with me. "I saw you move and sweat..." He straddled me and whispered into my ear. "I saw and it was... beautiful..." Still clutching my wrists, he pushed them over my head and held them before he moved to kiss me better and more thoroughly than he ever had.

"Ben I'm serious!" I heard Mercy's voice suddenly. "Don't even think about it!"

"Fuck him!" he roared. "I can not sit here and endure that scent and know that it is a dead man up there with her! I wont!"

"Ben!"

And then I heard thrashing. Running and clawing that sped towards the guest room in a fit of anger. I knew why Ben was angry and I wanted to sit up so that he wouldn't catch us the way we were but when I tried, Stefan put all his weight on me and deepened the kiss. Ben crashed through the door and Stefan vanished from where he was. Mercy wasn't far behind Ben, flipping on the lights. When I could see I spotted Stefan standing in the center of the room. He was holding Ben up over his head by his neck like he weighed nothing.

"Oh god!" Mercy shrieked.

Stefan bared his fangs and hissed at Ben, eyes still red and glowing. "Stefan!" I cried, leaping up off the bed. "Drop him, please!" I hated Ben. I thought he was an asshole and an egotistical, sexist, arrogant son of a bitch but that didn't mean I wanted Stefan to kill him. "Drop him!"

Stefan let go instantly. No fuss, no argument. Ben didn't stay down, though. He jumped up and swiped at Stefan like the idiot he was.

"Ben! Knock off!" Mercy shouted. "Stop! Stefan please don't hurt him!"

Ben went for Stefan's throat and the Vampire knocked him on his ass faster then he could recover from his missed swing. Ben hit the ground hard and scrambled to his feet yet again. I could see the rage in his eyes and like a dumb ass I ran towards them. What the fuck was I planning to do? Stop the two of them from fighting with my superior coyote powers? No. Sorry Mercy but your supernatural abilities have really sucked ass so far.

I hadn't been standing between them for half a second when I felt Stefan's arms around me, jerking me away as something huge came rampaging through the window. I hit the ground, slamming my head against the floor and Stefan landed on my back, hard, knocking the wind out of me. For a fraction of a second I saw the room spinning and wondered what in the hell the enormous beast on top of Ben was.

Then I passed out.


	16. Chapter 15

"How long was I out?" I asked once Mercy had sat me up as straight as I could be without feeling like I was gonna upchuck.

" Little under a half hour." She said. "You took a good bruising."

I raised a hand to the side of my head and felt the egg that was swelling there. "Shit. Isn't this cozy..."

As I sat on the floor against the far wall of the guest room, I tried to remember the events that passed before I fell unconscious. I remembered waking from a rather pleasant dream... That made heat crawl up face. _What happened next?_ I thought. Well, I remember Stefan was in the room. An embarrassed smile spread across my reddening face and Mercy turned her head sideways, examining me. I shook my head at her and returned to my recollections. Ben had come crashing in and then Mercy was there... Stefan and Ben were fighting and then... I looked up and across the room. "What the fuck blasted through the window?"

"That would be me." I looked up to find Adam standing in the doorway, leaning against the door frame.

I thought hard to remember what I'd seen on top of Ben. "But... That thing wasn't like any wolf I've ever seen..." I said. And it wasn't. It had been tall like a man but heavier with muscles and the fur was minimum.

"I am Alpha, Ruby." He said. "The regular wolf is not the only form I am able to take."

"What? But-"

"It like an in-between form." Mercy said.

"Between the man and the Wolf." Adam continued. "Equally as strong with better maneuverability and though I cant take that form often because of how much it drains the pack, when I do I can phase into it much quicker than I can into the wolf."

"I've only seen it one other time." Mercy added.

"That's some pretty scary Sh- err.. stuff. Scary stuff."

Adam smirked at my censored language and said. "Yes. Yes it is. Now, come. The Vampire has grave news for us down stairs..." And then he left.

"Are they both okay?" I asked Mercy on our way down the stairs.

"Both are fine." She said. "But Ben is in the safe room..."

"Ah."

Stefan, Bran, Sam, Charles, Adam, Adam's first and second and an older European looking man I'd never seen before were waiting for Mercy and me in the living room. Mercy took a spot on the couch besides the older man and I chose the arm chair that sat beside a standing Stefan.

I didn't mean to meet Stefan's eyes as I walked towards him, but when I glanced his way he was staring at me and, though my memories of what had happened less than an hour ago still brought a blush to my cheeks, I couldn't help but look at him. He looked shaken, and I wondered what the matter could be.

I sat and Mercy spoke up. "This is Zee." She introduced the Older white-haired man to me. " He is one of my dearest friends and used to own my shop." She said. "He is Fae."

"Like you." Zee said. "But you're a strange one." His accent was thick with roots I thought were German but... it was a strange kind of German. Ancient sounding almost. I guessed the Fae were supposed to be very old...

"Hello, Zee. My name is Ruby Talbot."

He leaned forward. "I know this. Now tell me, do you use glamor at all?" He was a rough guy but I liked him. A straight to the point, no nonsense kind of person.

"Nope." I told him simply. "I didn't even know I was part Fae until Sam and Charles spoke up the other morning."

"Ah." He sat back.

"Now," Bran said. "You have bad news for us Mr. Stefan."

Stefan sighed. "Yes. Very bad news." He cleared his throat, very un-vampire of him, I thought. "First of all, thank you Zee for offering your help. I have a feeling you will prove very helpful in the nights to come. Second, Ruby's training is not to be continued. It is my belief that the safest thing for her to do would be to duplicate a werewolf and stay that way for a while so that she may protect herself, should she find herself in danger without one of us. This is my opinion, not Marsilia's order. Thirdly, I do not intend to bring her back to my seethe ever, not if I can help it."

"But why?" I asked. "Is what ever she'd been planning, off?"

"We've all known that we couldn't very well let Marsilia have you, not really." Mercy said. Then she looked straight at Stefan. "Right?"

"I would not have brought her to you, Mercy, if I'd planned to really give her to them." He said and at that a slow wind of ease blew through the room and the higher wolves relaxed a little.

I'd honestly never given a thought to rather or not Adam and the rest of the wolves would let the vampires have me. I'd never actually thought anything about the fact that Stefan had indeed brought me to meet his friends. Did Marsilia even know that I'd been staying at The local Alpha's house? After my run in with Andre I guess she has to know I've been here... Did she think Stefan was keeping me locked away in his basement? I didn't know.

"So what is to be done?" Adam inquired.

"We prepare ourselves." Stefan continued. "I have discovered Marsilia's plan and I can not let it come to pass. It is unforgivable."

"Go on." Sam urged, who was sitting near the packs silent first and second. They didn't seem to be there to converse, but rather they were there as a formality. Maybe... All I knew is I'd never seen the two of them so still and silent and they stayed that way.

"Marsilia plans to... breed her."

I gasped with all of them. "Fuck that! No body's gonna '_breed_' me!"

"Why?" Charles growled.

"I do not know if her plan would ever actually work, but... She seems to believe that, if Ruby were to duplicate Vampirism, she would be..." he fell silent.

"What?" I asked. "I would be what?"

"She believes you would be a fertile vampire." He said. "She thinks that you would be a female vampire with the ability to procreate. Technically, a male vampire can still impregnate a human woman."

"Bull." Mercy growled.

"Oh but we can." He retorted. "If the temperature is just right and we try at the right time, it can be done... Marsilia plans for Ruby to use her powers to become a human vampire and conceive the child of a one of her children. She believes that the child born will be a pure vampire, an unstoppable force, the weapon of weapons. She believes that it will be hers to command as it is born from the seed of a vampire she created..."

When he finished he looked as sick to his stomach as I felt. I stood. "She will not have me." I said.

Stefan stared at me. "She will not have you."

"And a child born from me couldn't be a pure vampire anyways, could it? I'm human and Fae so-"

"Would you even still be alive if you took the powers of a vampire?" Bran asked.

I thought about that for a moment. I'd never tried to take vampirism... For all I knew it would really kill me. Maybe I couldn't even take it. "I don't know..." I said. Then I thought of something even scarier. "Who does she plan on... breeding me with...?"

"She said she'd thought of Andre... but changed her mind to Edwin. He's wrapped around her finger... plus he asked for the task..."

"What?" I gasped.

"I said he asked for the task. When he learned what was to be done with you, he went to Marsilia and specifically asked that he be the one to do it. She agreed, telling him, much to his delight, that he could do to you all that he liked so long as you did not die and he did not... ruin you..."

I was horrified. Utterly horrified. I feared Andre after what he'd done... but Edwin... I remember Stefan telling me about him the night he'd taken me to his home. He'd said that staying with Andre would be bad... but going home with Edwin would be much, much worse. What was worse than being raped and drained like Andre had tried to do? I didn't want to know...

"You said you thought I should be a wolf for a while..." I whispered. Is everyone in agreement?" They all hummed a 'yes' sound and I walked over to Adam. "If there is a chance that I will get Domina back, I want to try and take the wolf from you again... Just in case you are significant in any way to finding her again. Is that okay?"

"Yes." He said, holding his hand out to me.

I took his hand and thought of what I wanted from him. I let the ferociousness of my need to have Domina back in my life bubble up inside of me and then the tingling started.

When I had his wolf, I searched...


	17. Chapter 16

**Hey everybody! Thank you to all the people who have reviewed and been so supportive since I've returned! I really do appreciate it! This is a pretty short chapter... not really a chapter at all but I couldn't wait to post it so here yuh go! hope you like it :)**

I stood there before Adam and the rest and watched as the Alpha winced at my power surging through him. I felt the wolf spiral through me and crash into my gut where it tossed and turned for a few moments, during which I collapsed on the floor and writhed, wishing I'd just passed out like I had the last time I'd claimed his wolf.

Felt dizzy, lightheaded, and when I started to fall over, I felt arms around me. "Ruby!" Stefan was holding me, shaking me. "Ruby answer me!"

"S-s-stop... sh-shaking me..." I managed to say.

"Oh." He said.

"I'm f-fine..." I assured him, thinking that the pain and queasiness would pass soon. "Just adjusting..." I noticed that everyone had gotten up and crowded around me.

I was staring up at the ceiling, trying not to see anyone or anything but the whiteness above. I was trying to tune everything out and search for my sister.

_Domina? Are you there?_ I asked. _Sister... where are you? _No one answered and my eyes started to water. "Domina?" I cried aloud. "Please... please come back..."

I could feel the wolf bubbling inside me but there was no voice. It was like, though I had definitely taken the wolf from Adam, there was no intelligence to it. Pure rage and power just boiled in my gut with nothing to connect it to me and the pain would not subside.

I was going to ask to duplicate Mercy again and get rid of the thrashing feeling inside of me, to give up my search for good, when I heard Mercy speak. "Sweet Jesus, God in Heaven..." She gasped.

I found her in the crowd around me and saw that she wasn't looking down at me but across the room at the front door. I struggled to sit up, and Stefan had to help me. "What is it?" Stefan asked her.

They all looked from Mercy to the door, to Mercy and back to the door. I just stared at her for the longest time. I'd never seen that look on her face. The look of true fear and confusion. I followed her eyes to the other side of the room and gasped...

There was a woman there by the door. She stared at me, long waving hazelnut hair parted down the middle and pulled back with a thick gold headband, a long snaking braid trailing over her shoulder and down to her knees. Smaller, finer curls sprang from the start of her hairline and trickled down to frame her face beautifully and she wore floor length white robe with cerulean designs that brought out the startling blue of her eyes. Ring and thick bracers of gold lined her fingers and tanned arms. She was stunning. Even more beautiful than Marsilia herself. The prettiest I'd ever seen. "H-how did you get in here?" I asked her. "Who are you?" She grinned at me, a gorgeous spread of perfectly full, rosy lips that showed me her pearly fangs. She wasn't a vampire though. She couldn't have been. For one, she was tan and second... her fangs... they weren't very sharp... well, they were but not razor sharp like Stefan's. They were duller than that and thick like that of a... wolf...

That's when I knew...

"Who are you talking to?" Stefan asked me, giving me another shake.

"Can you see her too?" I asked Mercy.

"Yes... She's a... a ghost I think... But she feels... different. Not quite dead. I've never felt a ghost that wasn't dead all the way.

The woman spoke. "You have also never revived the spirit of a centuries old werewolf." She said.

The others jumped at the sound of her voice. They could hear her but they couldn't see her.

"Domina!" I cried.

"Ruby Talbot." She said.

I reached out for her and she fluttered to me like a dreamy apparition to kneel before me. Mercy stepped closer to me and knelt as well, watching intently as I reached out to my sister. "I've never been able to really touch them-" She stopped short as my fingers traced the softness of Domina's shoulder and down her arm. My fingertips tingled. "What?" She gasped and reached for Domina too, but her hand traveled right through her face.

"You can not touch me, Coyote." Domina said. "I am not real to you. To you I am a ghost, a spirit. To Ruby, I am a missing piece. The glue that will bind her to the raging beast inside of her."

The others were staring at the invisible source of the voice in front of me. Then I remembered about the pain in my stomach and dry heaved. The excitement of seeing the true appearance of my sister had made me forget it for a few glorious moments. I shuttered and touched Domina's perfect face. "Can you take the pain away?" I asked her. "Can we be together again? Sisters again?"

"I would love nothing more..." She said, smiling with tears in her eyes.

She kissed my forehead lightly and then put her hands together as if to dive and shoved her fingertips through the front of me. The act caught me off guard and I howled in pain. Mercy screamed and jumped up, backing away. The the others widened their eyes and stared at me. Maybe they were finally seeing her, or seeing something, I didn't know, but they didn't move to help me. They just stared and I looked down and watched in agony as Domina's spirit pushed itself through my stomach in into my body.

**Stefan's P.O.V.**

The two of them had seen a ghost. The vision of the wolf Domina, so it seemed. I wanted to go to Ruby when she started to scream but I just couldn't. The light that grew before her was too beautiful... extraordinary. She sat up on her knees before us, eyes wide, lips parted and back arched as the light swirled into her. When the brightness disappeared, pushed into her body, she shook and then her head went limp, body still arched, curling hair hanging. She straightened after moments of silence from us, blinked furiously and turned her sapphire gaze to us.

"How wonderful it is to be back..." Domina said.


	18. Chapter 17

The following morning I was resting on Jessie's bed while she packed her bags. "I don't see why I cant just stay here with you..." She whined.

"But you have to go." I told her. "If the Dead come for me, do you really wanna be here to get drained anyways?"

She turned away from her psychedelic orange and purple suitcase and frowned at me. "No but you're staying. Does that mean _you _wanna get drained?"

"Of course not, but they said I have to stay..."

"Why? Why cant you just come to my mom's house with me? She's let me bring friends with me before! God, she's even let my boyfriend over a few times. She's not gonna mind a girl..."

"I bet she'd mind if she knew I was a Werewolf-Coyote hybrid dipped in a Humanoid-Fae candy coating..." I laughed.

If she thought that was funny, she didn't show it. "I'm being serious. Why cant you come with me?"

"They all think that if I go into hiding it'll just make things worse and besides, they'd be able to sniff me out anywhere I went."

"What if we used Fae magic to mask your scent? That would work... We know some people who could definitely do that..."

"And do you think that not being able to find me easily is going to calm Marsilia down, or piss her off? I don't know about you, but a vampire raid for Ruby Talbot in the middle of the Tri-Cities doesn't sound like something that the tourists would appreciate..."

She huffed and pinched the bridge of her nose, eyes squeezed shut. In that moment she looked so much like Adam I had to cup a hand around my mouth to choke an escaping giggle. "So there's no way around it?"

"No way." I said.

"No way..." Whispered another voice, softly.

I jumped. "What was that?" I asked. Jesse gave me an odd look.

Movement in the corner of my eye caught my attention. I turned and found Domina leaning against the door frame.

I jumped at the sight of her. "W-what the fuck?"

She smiled and showed fang. Jesse looked puzzled and came to me. "Are you alright?" She asked. She felt my forehead. "Oh god, you're burning up, Ruby!" I'll go get Sam." She sprinted out of the room and passed right through the vision of my sister just as Mercy's hand had.

I waited until I thought Jesse was out of earshot to say. "What the fuck is going on..."

"What ever do you mean?" She asked, a look of false confusion on her face.

"You're visible, Domina... Why the fuck are you visible?"

She laughed. "Oh, this?" She raised her hands in front of her face and rubbed her thumbs against her fingers. "Just a little trick I've recently discovered..."

"But I thought it was just a one time thing..." I sat back down on the bed.

"I almost thought that, but then I figured out I can do it anytime... I intend to walk around as I please."

"But you can't just walk around all the time, Domina. You can't just talk out loud when ever you feel like it."

"Why not?" She frowned at me.

_Well because I want to keep you..._ I thought. Having Domina visible to me and being able to hear her when ever she spoke would be very distracting... I hadn't like the way Jesse looked at me before she left. Like she thought I was nuts. I didn't want that look from anyone else. And I didn't want to get rid of Domina. Not ever again.

I told her so and she said. "I could just speak up when no one else is around. When its just the two of us... Although, it might be great fun to watch you try to speak to the others and listen to me at the same time..." She smiled evilly.

I heard people on the stairs and glared at her, mouthing the words, "_Keep quiet_..."

She shrugged as if to say, "_Maybe, maybe not..._"

I loved my dear sister to death... but sometimes I hated the nasty tricks she liked to pull.

Jesse and Sam came into the room, Sam carrying an impressive looking first aid kit. "Jesse says you may be running a fever." Sam said as the two of them walked straight through Domina.

"She certainly is. "Domina said.

I gasped, eyes wide and looked at them to see if they'd reacted to her voice. They just stared at me wearily. I was really the only one who knew she was there. "Are you okay, Little One?" Sam asked me.

I smiled sweetly. "Uh, yes... Ha ha. Just fine... just fine."

The two of them exchanged glances and Domina smirked at me behind them.

"Alright then," Sam said, walking towards me after taking a thermometer out of his kit. "Lets take your temp." He had me sit down on the bed.

I opened my mouth wide and let him slip the skinny glass thermometer under my tongue. He held it there like a nurse would for a child, and stared down at his wrist watch. I thought it was cute. Not 'cute-cute' of course... but it was adorable to see the Marrok's son in doctor mode. I must not have noticed the first time he'd played doctor because I was too pissed at him.

"He is quite the handsome man, isn't he..." Domina whispered, walking forward to Sam and wrapping her arms around his waist.

"Don't touch him!" I jumped up and the thermometer fell out of my mouth.

"She wasn't touching me..." Sam growled, speaking of Jesse and standing there in the arms of Domina not knowing she was there.

"I-I-I..." I stuttered.

"See what I mean?" Jesse mumbled To Sam.

They thought I was fucking crazy... Completely daft. But what could I say? 'Don't be alarmed! I'm just talking to Domina, the centuries old Roman wolf-woman who lives inside my head and has recently started to walk around and speak out load.'

_Yeah..._ I thought. _That will convince them I haven't gone insane..._

They left me to go talk to Adam and the rest, I assumed to tell them I was acting bananas.

"Why did you do that?" I asked her. "Why?"

"I didn't do anything." She smiled. "I was just talking, Sister... You could have ignored me." She snorted. "You were the one who started acting like a nut!" and she continued her hysterics as people started up the stairs again.

I crawled onto the bed once again and scooted back against the headboard. Adam walked in and Mercy behind him. The others, Sam and Jesse, waited in the hall looking in. Warren and Charles were in the hall too, but I only knew that because I could smell the scent of Charles' shampoo and the soft leather of Warrens cowboy hat and boots.

"How are you feeling, Ruby?" Adam asked me.

"Yes, Ruby..." Domina was having more fun with the situation than I thought she should be having. "How are you feeling?" She came to Adam and place a hand on his right shoulder, resting her left cheek against her hand. He didn't know she was there.

"I..."

"What do you think he'd say if you told him the truth, I wonder...?" My sister asked.

I looked away from her and at the faces of my friends. They were a mixture of worry and cautious stares.

"Fine." I said. "There has been an interesting development." I announced. They all just stared so I continued. "Adam, Domina is leaning on your right shoulder as we speak."

His eyes widened and his head jerked to his right, then his face went blank. "I... don't underst-"

"You cant see her."

They all stared some more, but eventually, with enough explaining, they took it a lot better than I thought they would. Except for Charles. When I told them the truth Charles stepped into the doorway and eyed me suspiciously.

Honestly, I think the only reason why any of the others even tried to accept what I said was because Mercy stuck up for me some what. Probably because she had seen Domina last night, though she said she couldn't see her in the room just then when she was leaning on Adam. I was happy that they had tried to understand but I did however make them all promise not to tell anyone else about it. It was bad enough that a few people knew about my Phantom sister-wolf companion. I didn't need anymore trouble on top of that, the fact that vampires would soon discover Stefan's treachery and come looking for me, my current homelessness and all of my love trouble... Jesus fucking Christ, my love troubles...

An hour later the monsters were mostly gone. I wasn't going to be expected at Marsilia's until sun down, Adam and Mercy left to take Jesse to where ever her mom lived, or whoever the middle man was who would take her there and Stefan was slumbering in the Safe Room where no one was aloud to venture until sundown. Bran and Charles and a few other members of the pack left to stay at another location where they could keep an eye on Marsilia's place and Anna had been sent home. Charles had refused to let her stay. Warren and Daryl were on the front porch and I was at the very back of the house on the second floor in the most secluded extra room I could find. One thing I really did love about Adam being an Alpha was that his house was enormous and had tons of extra space.

I was laying on the queen sized guest bed when I heard a voice. "What is that wolf to you anyhow?"

I rolled over and found Domina laying on her side on the comforter right beside me. She looked at me and I at her. It was almost impossible to believe that she wasn't really there. She looked real. I could reach out and touch her and the bed and sheets gave under her weight, yet if someone were to walk in at that very moment, they would not see her.

"What wolf?" I asked her.

"Don't be shy, Sister. The one who laid on top of you nights ago. You cant tell me you forgot that..." She smiled and I felt a blush creep up my face.

"Ben..." I whispered.

"I know his name..." She said.

"If you know, if you can just look into my head and see the answer to your question, then why do you even bother asking?" I shot.

"Just because I can see what you think and feel doesn't mean I understand and agree with everything. You should know that by now..."

I sighed. "I don't know... I just... It doesn't matter. I have chosen Stefan. _We_ have chosen Stefan..."

"I didn't ask you any of that." She growled. "I asked 'what is he to you?'"

I scoffed. "What is he to _you_?"

"If I had my way, he might become a very nice looking play thing..." Her eyes were gold and she wasn't looking at me anymore, looking through me rather, seeing naughty things just like Ben had seen when he looked down at me as I laid on the couch.

She sent me some of those thoughts of her's. Images I could see and feel. Thought's and feelings I didn't like having about Ben. "Domina!" I growled as loud as I could without making myself feel completely nuts for talking to an imaginary person. "We have chosen already!"

She threw her head back and rolled on to her back, laughing. "I know, I know! And do not mistake those lovely thoughts for meaningful romance, Dearest. But Gods, he is rather delicious..."

I rolled onto my back and covered my reddening face. Ben was just as she said he was. Delicious. But he just didn't compare to Stefan. I tried weighing them both in my mind...

Deliciousness, compared to Stefan's loving eyes.

Deliciousness, compared to Stefan's gentle touch.

Deliciousness, compared to Stefan's wisdom.

They loud, aggressive and possessive way Ben kisses or the soft, deep and romantic way Stefan touches me when his mouth is on mine.

"I see what you mean," Domina began softly. "but tell me this," she looked over to me. "and tell me honestly... do you really favor one of their kissing styles over the other?" She looked serious.

I thought hard. "No..." I admitted. "I think I liked their kissing the same. Even if Ben did force me..."

She snorted. "Oh Ruby, please."

I glared at her.

"Really? He forced you? Oh sister..." She sat up on her elbows. "With these lovely memories you have, it's as if I saw the whole thing, Darling. I watched you kiss him and touch his skin. You threatened to scream, yes, but you did not. You had several chances to do so and you didn't..."

"So."

"So tell me..." She sounded tired of asking the same question. "What is he to you?"

"He is... interesting to me, kind of..."

"Why?" she seemed quite entertained.

I remembered back to the first time I saw Ben. "You remember when he and I first met?"

Giggling to herself, she nodded. "Ah, Yes. Very well. Such a foul mouth... though I do remember you not being so offended by him as you claimed..."

"Oh I was offended..." I said. "I just also enjoyed myself. I cant say that I've ever met a man as dastardly as Ben. I've met men scarier, sure... but not quite like him... And I still don't quite understand why I like that he talks so foul. Maybe because it's usually me with the potty mouth and the men running away."

"So Ben is interesting to you..." She stated.

"I guess, yeah..."

There was a knock at the door. I really must have been distracted not to hear or smell anybody until they got this close. That thought really disturbed me because, technically, I'd been talking to myself... I looked down at Domina and she was gone. No where to be seen. Even more unsettling. I sniffed the air and asked, "Who's there?" thought I knew the answer already.

"Me." He said. "May I come in?"

I remembered the last time he'd wanted me to open a door for him. "No harsh words or sexist names?" I asked.

Ben laughed. "If you like..." He said.

I sighed and rubbed my eyes. "If you'll behave, you can come in." I told him.

The door opened and he stepped inside. "I'll try my very best," he said. "but you know me... I cant make any promises." He shut the door behind him, which I didn't like, and came to sit on the edge of the bed, as far as he could get and still be on the mattress. He wasn't looking at me.

"What do you want?"

"Maybe I came to check on you. They said you had a fever..."

The warmness from earlier had gone down considerably. "Yeah right."

"Really, I did."

"Maybe you came to force yourself on me.."

He turned and glared.

"Don't give me that look..." I growled. And I mean I really growled.

"Don't make me give it to you..." He said back with the same ferociousness.

I rolled over, giving him my back and huffed. "I really don't feel well enough to deal with your fucking bullshit, Ben..."

He laughed and it sent a very unappreciated shiver down my spine. "You seem to favor that word, Ruby Talbot..."

"What word?" I crossed my arms over my chest, pulled my knees up and stared at the blank wall.

"'Fuck' Ruby... You seem to favor the word 'Fuck'. And also 'Fucked' and 'Fucking' … What a harsh curse word for a young woman to use..."

"Shit, Ben. Don't make like you give a damn about the way I talk... like you're concerned about my 'image' as a young woman." I said. And then I added. "And those aren't curse words, anyhow... They're 'Sentence Enhancers'..."

He laughed out loud, a real laugh, and I felt the space on the bed behind me give under his weight. He sighed. "You always make me laugh, Ruby. Did you know that?"

"I'm sure you squeal with girlish delight at all of my fancy jokes when I'm not around."

He scoffed. "You are also a pain in the ass..."

"You know," I rolled over to face him. "I thought the English were supposed to talk smart and sophisticated. The only thing I've really heard from you so far is a whole lot of hot air and sexist slurs." He just looked at me, laying there on his back. The silent treatment... Goody. I when I rolled back over, hoping he would just leave me alone, I started to smell that sweet smell again. "What _is_ that smell..." I remembered asking him that once before but Stefan had arrived with urgent news and he hadn't had the chance to answer me.

He rolled over onto his side, putting his front up against my back. "That smell means I am fond of you, Ruby..."

I sat up slowly. "Fond of me how?" I asked, but as soon as I did I wished I hadn't. I had a feeling I already understood what he meant.

He brushed fingertips along my hip. "The way a man can sometimes be fond of a lovely woman..." He whispered against the back of my neck.

_Lovely? _I flinched away from his touch. "Don't do that." I said.

"Why not?"

I growled and turned to face him again, sitting up. "What is this, Ben? What are you doing?"

"I told you." He said calmly. "I came you check your fever."

"No." I said. "What's the fucking deal with your behavior?"

"There's that favorite word again." He laughed and then spoke up when I glared. "Call it... testing a new approach."

"Ben, I don't understand why I have to keep explaining this to people, but I don't want you. Do you know what that means? I don't want you to be my man or my mate or my Sugar. Not my Love or my Darling."

He frowned for half a second and then said. "But I know you like me. Maybe you aren't infatuated like you are with the dead man but you do like me."

"I am not infatuated with him! And I do not like you!"

He lifted a brow.

"You, Ben, are an attractive man. I will give you that only because it is the truth and I know that's what you're trying to get at, but I will not say that I like you because I would be lying, okay?"

"Its more than that, Ruby. You like me for who I am, too..."

"What?" I gasped. "You do realize what you just said, right?"

"Yes... I do. You like me, Ben, with the sailor's mouth. You like me, what I look like. You love it when we argue, I know you do. You turn your head so that I cant see your smile but I know its there..." I growled, hating that he knew I liked our rude chatting and he laughed. "I know that you love getting a rise out of me. Do you know how I know that?" He raised himself so that his face was so close to mine that I could feel his breath caress my face softly. "I know because when ever you turn your head and hide, when you think I don't know you're enjoying yourself... That smell, that sweetness that you hate so much... It comes from you..."

I slapped him hard and jumped off of the bed. "You fucking Bastard!" I roared.

He rubbed his cheek for a moment and then just laid back, crossed his legs and clasped his hands behind his head. No anger at all. "That just proves it..." He wasn't even looking at me. He just stared up, smug smile in place.

It was then that I realized that Ben meant more to me than just a sexy piece of eye candy. He was right. He was handsome. I loved the way he talked and the way he was angry. I loved making him mad.

He was a bad boy and there was a part of me that loved very much that the bad boy was after me...


	19. Chapter 18

**A/N: So, this is a suuuper duper short chapter... Sorry for that but I wanted to post a little something for now just in case I'm not able to update soon. There is a chance I might not have my computer for a few days... *cries***

**(P.S. Thank you so much to those who are still reading and reviewing! Its your lovely comments and support that keeps me writing c[: )**

"What do you mean they took him!" I screamed at them. All the wolves were on their feet and ready.

"They didn't _take_ him... He just... walked in." It was a female wolf who spoke. One I'd never seen before with fake nails, hair extensions and movie perfect make-up.

"He what?" Rage surged through me and I flipped Adam's coffee table. Wolves lept out of the way as it crashed into the wall.

"Ruby!" It was Adam.

"No! How could you let this happen?"

He crashed into me and pinned me to the floor. "It-wasn't-our-fault!" He roared into my face.

Everyone in the room quieted down and stared like they'd never seen him so furious. To bad his dominance didn't work on me. "Get the _fuck _off of me Adam!" I struggled beneath him. Dominance might not be enough to hold me down, but his two-hundred plus pounds of muscle and brute strength sure was. "I'm going to get him!"

"You cannot! They'll kill you or worse!"

I roared wordlessly. Marsilia had Stefan. The vampires hadn't captured him, he'd walked right in and then none of them had tried to come for me. Why? Why wouldn't they still come for me? Unless Stefan had bargained... But for what? More time? What?

Before I knew it my eyes were filled with tears and I was sniffling. "You can't keep me here! I have to find him, Adam! He's mine!" Domina swam through my gut violently, trying to coax the wolf out of me but I held her down. I couldn't shift with Adam on top of me like that. For one, it would hurt like hell and two, it wouldn't help my argument any if I couldn't speak English.

"She isn't mated... but she _is_ fighting for her mate, Adam..." It was Warren. "She claimed him and he never said no..."

"What if he was Mercy and you were me?" I cried, trying to wriggle out from under him and staring up into his golden eyes. "What would _you_ do?"

It took him a while but he loosened his grip and soon he, Warren, Daryl, Charles and I were speeding across town.


	20. Chapter 19

**Stefan's P.O.V.**

I stood there in front of the seethe gates. Marsilia's voice pulled at my mind and I let her in.

_**'I feel you, Soldier... but why have you not brought me the girl?'**_

I did not answer.

_**'Could it be that you protect her? Could it be that you care for her?'**_

I still did not answer.

_**'Ah, well... I know where she stays, Stefan my Love... I will have her soon enough...'**_

_'I am not your Love, Marsilia... Feelings of the sort have not been shared between us for a very, very long time...' _She sickened me now. Of course a secret part of me had loathed her from the very beginning. She'd taken my life and not just my heartbeat and breath... She'd taken me from my wife, Lucia... and my child. Because of her I never knew his face, his name... or hers. Was it a boy? Was it a girl? I never knew.

After all that she'd stolen away she still had some way about her. Some humanity she still hung on to that I grew to love. No more. She was a monster now and she had been for a long, long time...

_**'You are.'**_ She said.

I ignored her delusions of our love. _'You cannot take her... You cannot because the wolves will fight for her. The Marrok himself will fight for her. He is here. I will fight for her.'_

She was silent for a long time before I felt her again. She was angry, hissing, fuming. **_'I will have her no matter what! She is a vital part of this plan, you know that! She IS the plan!'_**

_'The plan is moot.'_

_**'Listen to me, Soldier... I have kept you alive for centuries when I should not have! If you refuse to bring her tonight, if you do not show your face the others will know...'**_

_'Let them know... Let them doubt you. Let them doubt your plan...'_

_**'You must bring her!' **_She roared in my head. **_'I give you one last chance, Stefan. She is not with you now, so I assume the wolves protect her tonight... You will bring her to me tomorrow night. You will and you will not warn them tonight that we will have her tomorrow. You will not warn them to move my girl.'_**

_'Why? What stops me from leaving and going to them right now?'_

She laughed and it was a mixture of evil and pure pleasure. _**'I do not care that the Marrok is here, Stefan. This is my chance to gain something of worth. This is my opportunity for the old ones in Italy to recognize me again grant my wish! To allow me back! If you want to spare the wolves tonight, because I swear I will attack them, and if you want me to... allow this Ruby Talbot to live **__**after she delivers to me my prize, you will remain under my surveillance tonight and tomorrow I will have her without fail.'**_

I knew exactly what she meant by 'under her surveillance'... She wanted me. She wanted to have me again and she would use the situation to her advantage. She could feel my disgust and it made her laugh. If she attacked tonight we could win so long as we had the Marrok and his sons at our side. But would Mercy for give me if I risked so many of the lives of their wolves? Would Adam? What would they think if their brothers and sisters died when I had the choice to prevent it?

I thought of Ruby. She was so very young. I cared. I really truly did, though I didn't know what would become of us. We don't seem to share anything... hobbies, humor... She talks like a man and she doesn't watch Scooby-Doo. Would we have a home together? Would she want to move away after she left Adam's home? I didn't know. But what I knew for sure was that she made me feel something. I wasn't just the Soldier, to her... I wasn't a good friend to her who would never win her love like I am to Mercy. Happiness fills me when I look at her and the look in her eyes when she catches sight of me warms my dead heart... boils my blood. I am not dead to her. Not in her eyes. I am a person to her. That's all I need. She can have her own home, her own life, anything. I just want to love her and be loved...

That was all the assurance I needed. _'Agreed...' _I told Marsilia.

The gates opened and I walked up to my old home. I did not find anyone inside. They were there, of course, I could feel them there but they were no where to be seen. She had sent them away. I made my way to my Mistresses chamber and she was waiting for me.

"Hello, Stefan..." She greeted in that seductive voice that no longer moved me.

I shut the door behind me and came to stand at the foot of her giant Victorian style bed. She laid there of the silk sheets, naked, her long golden hair cascading around her shoulders like a fine fur coat. She was the palest woman in the world, yet she was still beautiful. Not to me, of course.. not anymore but I knew how much her body was desired and I knew that it ate at her that I would not willingly have her. Crimson lips smiled devilishly at me and she sat up and reached for me.

Could I spend a night with this monster to save the lives of my friends and my love? I could do it if it meant buying time to save Ruby... If it meant gaining a chance to get her out of this mess...

I unbuttoned my shirt slowly and stared at her the way she'd always loved me to do. She smiled wider as I lost the shirt and let my hair down. I took her and and crawled onto the bed. She pulled my down into a crushing kiss.

**A/N: So there you have it! An epic conflict! Dun-Dun-Dun! How are the Stefan fans doing right now? i hope they don't have stones in their hands... hahahaha. More to come, so stay tuned!**


	21. Chapter 20

I was in the middle seat of Adam's S.U.V. sandwiched between Warren and Daryl. Adam was doing seventy in a forty-five zone and Charles was holding on to the front passenger door for dear life.

"Let me out!" Domina roared through my mouth and then I felt the change. I had only changed into the wolf once and I'd hoped never to do it again. My bones cracked and popped out of their sockets like snapping celery sticks and carrots.

"She's changing back hear!" It was Warren.

"Get her to the back!" Adam shouted. "The back!"

Warren peeled my jeans off and Daryl took my shirt. Any other time I would have flipped out about that... I mean, Daryl and Warren just stripped me in the middle of Adam's car, but I didn't have time. Using my human legs was impossible at that moment but I managed to use my arms, and some help from the wolves, to heave myself over the back of the middle seats. My skin slid around painfully and it felt like it split as my spine elongated and pushed itself up with a loud snapping sound. Dark fur rolled over me and claws burst from my new paws. The only good feeling about that change is when my face turns. It still hurts, or course, but my sinuses open up as my snout develops and it's like taking in the freshest lungs of air I've ever breathed. When my teeth come in it's satisfying, like they were aching before because I had something stuck there and now that they are out, that uncomfortable hurt is gone.

I twitched my ears, shook my tail and the car stopped. "How the _fuck _am I supposed to do _anything_ like this, Domina?" I tried to scream but it all came out as a series of blood curdling howls. Someone opened the back hatch and I jumped out.

Adam was pissed and frazzled enough to shout, "Shit!"

I wasn't paying much attention to the rest, though. I spotted the front gates of Marsilia's estate and had a brief flash back of riding in Stefan's Mystery Machine while he drove my mangled self to his suburban home. I wasted no time smashing myself through the gates. It hurt like hell but I'd have time to feel pain later.

_**Onward!** _Domina urged. _**I smell him! He was here!**_

That was the first time I'd tried to run on four legs and I quickly found myself tripping over the ledge of a large circular planter in the middle of the driveway round-about that I'd tried to hurdle over.

One of the wolves behind me has shouting for me to wait, to slow down, but I didn't care. I crashed into the front doors but they were too heavy to break on my own. All I accomplished was successfully bruising my whole right side. Adam, Warren and Charles appeared beside me suddenly and Daryl was no where to be seen. I assumed he was manning the S.U.V. I howled at Adam and slammed into the door again. He helped pry it open but when I got inside I would not let him pass. This was _my_ fight and this was _Domina's_ fight. I didn't want them to get killed or worse for breaking into Marsilia's place because of my stubbornness or Stefan's complete and unexpected stupidity.

_**What was he thinking!** _Domina's voice in my head was a crashing wave of anger and worry.

_I don't know..._ I thought to her.

Warren tried to step inside as hurried footsteps and hissing erupted from the depths of Marsilia's home. I threw my side into him and growled.

"You can't go in there alone, Girl! You'll die!" He looked to Adam. "She'll die!"

Adam looked at me solemnly, frowning. "She knew that when she begged to come here. I even told her so. You were there..." He was still staring straight at me and I nodded in agreement. "Ruby... I cant stop you from doing this... It's your choice..."

"Adam," Warren protested.

Adam raised his hand for silence and looked wearily over my head towards the sound of angry vampires and then back to me. "You do what you need to do tonight, Ruby Talbot. I don't know how you'll manage it but if you can get him out, you get back to us if you can. We will be ready. We all will. Marsilia's tricks have gone on long enough and if tonight is when we stop it then that's just the way things will have to be." He nodded and then ordered the rest to leave.

Adam and Warren sprinted away, but Charles lingered for a moment. "Godspeed, young one..." He said and then he was gone.

I turned to the house and thought to my sister. _Feed me anger! _I demanded. _Feed me rage and give me the strength to save him!_

Sprinting through the large front chamber of the front of the Seethes home, I roared at the top of my lungs. A vampire burst through a door leading to a long darkened corridor and I jumped on him. I'd never seen his face ever before in my whole life and yet... I had not problem tearing a mouth of flesh from his shoulder. He screamed and dug claws into my back and left side as we tumbled to the marble tiled floor. He kept scratching and tearing as I bit and ate away at his throat. Blood poured into my mouth, much to Domina's delight and I didn't feel the least bit of guilt for killing him.

Even in wolf form Domina swirled with in me. She wanted out, wanted to be free but I couldn't let her. It was my turn to fight for us. I fed on her rage and let it spread through me. I let it feed my strength. Vampires poured into the corridor, following the cries of their comrade no doubt, and they were on me. One wrapped my neck in an iron grip and lifted me, shoving me into the wall, curling black hair in disarray, fangs flashing from his snarling mouth. The others followed and I felt them bite and claw onto anything they could. I lashed out with an arm to punch on of them away, as was a reflex of my human self, but my wolf leg only flailed. I found myself wanting arms and hands to grab, needing two legs to kick and sprint with. I roared in pain as they ravaged me and I pushed at the vampire at my neck with my animal legs. Pain surged through my limbs and torso and I began to change again, though this was a different kind of change...

I had my hands back now but they were different. Definitely hands but... bigger, longer and still covered in fur. Before I had been off the ground and dangling at their mercy and now my feet reached the smooth chilly floor. I wrapped my hands around the back of a head that was sucking at my thigh and yanked hard sending a pale woman flying down the hall. I ripped the rest of them from my body without ease. They had latched on to me so tight that they came away with chunks of my flesh in their mouths.

I ripped into all of them and brought them second death. Final death. All except one. A man with long red hair and eyes so frosty blue he looked blind.

"Where is Stefan?" I asked him. My voice was so deep I felt the floor beneath my feet vibrate ever so slightly.

My new jaws were strange and made my words sound so different, so odd, I thought maybe he hadn't understood me. He just lay there bleeding before me from the claw wounds I'd inflicted across his belly. "He is below..." He finally managed. "With Marsilia..." and then he pointed to the end of the long hall. There was a door there and it was open, exposing a darkened flight of stairs. I was going to end him before I left him but I new with his guts spilled out like they were even if he could heal himself he wouldn't be going anywhere anytime soon. I lept down the stairs wondering if vampires could bleed to death... I also wondered if I cared...

The stairs were endless. I lept farther and farther into the darkness towards a small burning light that slowly grew in size as I neared it. When I reached the wall torch I found that it illuminated a second door. A thick wooden one that was steel enforced and looked as old as time itself. I thrashed it. It was stronger than the front door that I'd had trouble with, which proved that whatever it was that I'd changed into was much, much stronger than regular wolf form.

_**The 'in-between'**_ Domina whispered. **_You have seen this once before..._**

I thought about her words and then remembered the night Adam had come crashing through the guest room window. Adam was an alpha. He said that he was able to take the in-between form because as an alpha he could siphon power from the pack and channel it into the beast I had just become.

_But why have we done this?_ I thought.

My sister laughed. _**We are special of course. Ruby, we are not tied to the moon. You and I fear no wolf authority. We need no alpha, no pack because we are singular. We are our own master. We can do what ever we want. **_I understood. **_Now go, _**She said. _**Go and rescue our Stefan.**_

I almost chickened out just then for the realization of what I'd done finally made itself real to me. My bones and skin ached. My mouth tasted of vampire blood and flesh and I reeked of death and horror. My dear sister had said that we were singular. So, in a sense, we were our own alpha... but would Adam have destroyed so many like I had just done? I remembered asking him what he would have done if he were me, if Stefan were Mercy. He answered me be rushing me into the mouth of danger. Did that mean if he really were in my shoes it would be him covered in blood right now?

I worried for a few moments about my sanity. If I got Stefan out would I always remember this night as the most exhilarating hunt of my life? Because in all seriousness, that's what it was. Exhilarating. Would I want this all the time? I stood there in the door way thinking all this through in a matter of seconds. The last thought I had on the matter was concerning what would happen if I left this place with Stefan... but I didn't think it for long because someone stepped into view at the end of the dark room before me.

"How utterly monstrous." Edwin rumbled. His eyes were glowing red and the look on his face was of pure... hunger...

I don't know what set me of first, the look in his eyes or how completely delighted he seemed to be to see me but I rushed him. I tried to kill him. I wanted to eat into his flesh and feel his blood, his very life force leave his body and I wanted it to be because of me. I couldn't catch him though because he would not fight me. He dodged everything, laughing.

"Oh, don't look so angry..." He chuckled when I stopped attacking and roared up at the ceiling. "You and I will have our time together soon, Girl... but for now there is something I would love for you to see..." He smiled pleasantly and it was almost attractive, almost. "You did come here to see your lover, didn't you?" I stopped when he said that and he threw his head back and barked with laughter.

"Where?" I growled.

"Change back to the young girl and I will show you." He expected me to change before him, to be weak and vulnerable for a few moments. Absolutely not. I told him so and frowned. "Then I suppose Marsilia and Stefan shall have to have their fun without you..." He crossed a pale arm across his stomach and rested the elbow of the other arm upon it, reaching up to cup his smooth chin thoughtfully.

I winced at his false thoughtfulness and asked, "Their fun?" He seemed to happy to invite me to watch, which must mean that Marsilia was doing horrible things to Stefan. Was she torturing him? Was she draining him? What?

"Marsilia and Stefan were lovers once, you know. Bed sport between the two of them was not always so uncommon. I am so pleased that he has taken to her again so enthusiastically. I do love seeing my mistress happy..."

I gaped at him and the change came involuntarily, at Domina's command. It was quicker this time, probably because I was already in the In-Between form. I knelt there on the floor naked, surprisingly unharmed by Edwin who I thought would have attacked me while I changed. "What has she done to him?" I cried, body still aching from the change and covered in the blood of vampire foes.

"I would love to explain it," he said, eyes roaming over my nude body hungrily, "but I would love even more for you to see for yourself..."

Domina's rage boiled inside me and urged me to my feet. She appeared beside Edwin, though he could not see her. "He wont hurt us... not physically, not yet... He wants to see our hearts break first. Go to Stefan and get him out of here. Do not let what you see cause you to hesitate. There will be time for pain later." She said, looking both angry and incredibly solemn, as if she had seen what had happened already and then she disappeared. I tried to read her mind, to feel her but it was no use. She was there, still raging and roiling but it was like she was shielding from me, blocking my mind from hers.

"Show me." I said to Edwin and he nodded and strode through an open door to my left.

I left a good ten feet between us at all times as I went deeper and deeper into torchlit halls of the Seethes hide out. He didn't make a move to touch me but he did glance back to gaze at me every once in a while and smile to himself. Soon I could hear small sounds coming from the dim depths and I didn't need Edwin to guide me any longer. He stopped outside a large door and gestured for me to go through it. The door was cracked open slightly and from the sound of things, Stefan wasn't being tortured at all...


	22. Chapter 21

Edwin shoved the door open and I saw them. He was above her and she faced him but she stared at me over his shoulder, smiling. I watched the muscles in his back, thighs and buttocks tightened and moved as he thrust into her over and over, hard and unrelenting.

I whimpered and he stopped and turned to me. The look on his face was... of excitement... exhilaration. Fangs out and glistening, eyes red with pleasure, hunger. His expression quickly turned to horror as the realization of the situation hit him and he lept off of Marsilia, taking the black silken sheets with him that had been pooled around them. He covered himself and stared at me, wide eyed.

"Why are you..." I was naked and it didn't bother me. Blood was smeared from my mouth down my chest, stomach and thighs and I didn't care. Bite marks marred my flesh and it meant nothing. Nothing in the world mattered at that moment except for the sight before me and the utter betrayal I felt and I couldn't find the words to speak of my devastation, my heartbreak.

"Ruby... It's-"

"Not what it looks like?" Marsilia offered, laying naked on the bed, legs still wide and rolling her wrist in the air. "Perhaps it 'isn't what it seems'." She laughed a sound like broken glass. She closed her legs finally.

"I t-thought she was hurting you..." I whispered. "I came to save you..."

"She killed for you, Soldier." It was Edwin. "Look at her. It was war for her." He gestured to my wounds, to the blood all over my body and the sheer intensity of my appearance. To me he said, "See what he gives you in return for your sacrifice?" Tears welled in my eyes and I was in a state of such shock that I did not shake away from Edwins touch when his finger tips traced a line lightly from my right hip, around my back to the other hip. "He is a Vampire..." Edwins voice was low, lips so close to my ear they brushed against my skin as he spoke, tracing that line from hip to hip over and over.. "What did you expect from him? Love?"

"Quiet!" Stefan shouted. "And do not touch her!"

Edwins hands left me and he stared at Stefan but still spoke to me. "He is old, Ruby, we all are. When you get old like us you lose most emotions like that... When you're as old as Stefan, you can not love as humans love... Isnt that right, Soldier?"

"I can not love her like a human man can," He blurted frightfully, "but that doesn't mean I can not love!" He looked at me. "I love you!"

"No..." I said, eyes still wide and tears trailing down my cheeks. "No...no...no..." My voice was a whisper.

"What now?" Marsilia asked. "Will you hurt him like you hurt my flock? Will you kill him?" I took a step closer to Stefan and Edwin grabbed my arm. "No." His Mistress ordered. "I want to watch." And she giggled. My pain was amusing her.

I walked to Stefan when Edwin let go and stopped a foot in front of Stefan. "I want you hurt you..." My voice was weak and cracking. He closed the distance and cupped my face. "I want you to feel this..." I put my hands to my chest.

"I will deserve every bit of it..." He said and his eyes were watering. A tear slipped down his cheek and it wasn't clear, but tinted a rosy pink. I wondered in that moment just how old he really was. "But it will have to wait," and then his face hardened into serious blankness. "because we have to escape first..." He looked over at Marsilia and the last thing I heard before being hurled into darkness was her voice crying out. "CATCH HIM!"


	23. Chapter 22

Up until that moment in my life, I had never teleported before. I was standing naked in front of Stefan who, because he'd let got of the sheet he'd used to cover himself so he could hold my face, was also as starkly nude as me. There was a flicker of complete darkness and then in the next moment we were standing beside Adams living room arm chair. My ears popped and I wondered, had Stefan teleported us there only a few inches to the right, would we have appeared inside of the chair? Would that have been painful? How much did he have to think about where he teleported?

The feeling of moving through space that way was strange feeling and I found my mind spinning for a moment and my balance slightly off. When I regained my composure I looked up at Stefan who was still cupping my cheeks and then around a Adam, Mercy, Charles and Warren who stood dumbfounded for half a second before they reacted to us.

"Ruby!" Mercy cried and ran to me.

The others were shouting for the rest of the wolves to come and one of them shouted specifically for Sam and his first aid. Stefan pulled me closed and hissed at them all when they neared us. "No!"

I broke his hold on me and threw him over the back of the dark leather chair and hurdling into a floor lamp by the far wall. I did feel bad for ruining so much of Adam's furniture during my stay. "You will never touch me again!" I screamed. And then I lept over the couch and sped to jesse's room with inhuman speed. There was a silky bath robe hanging behind her door that matched Mercy's. I threw it on and slammed her door shut when I heard wolves rushing up the stairs.

"No!" Stefan halted them. He sounded exhausted. "She is in no condition to see anyone right now..."

"What do you mean?" It was Sam. "Adam said there was blood all over her!"

"She will heal..." I heard Stefan again.

His voice trailed off because I stopped listening and tuned in to the Wolf sitting in the open window seal. Her gown and hair rippled beautifully as the wind blew across her. She looked as sorrowful as I felt. "He betrayed us..." I said to her.

"Not really..." She whispered, tears streaming down her face. "He never claimed us back, not really... He made it seem like he had accepted us... but he never did say it..."

"But the look in his eyes..." I cried.

"I know, my sweet. I know..."

Memories flooded through my mind then. Memories of another time. Domina's memories. A dark-haired handsome man called Marcus had been her lover... He knew what she was and she thought he had accepted her... but he never really had. They were never truly mated and he left her for a woman in a far away land... My heart ached for my sister and for me. "Fresh air..." I said.

"Yes, that sounds pleasant." she crouched in the window and looked over her shoulder at me. "Shall we?"` She lept and I followed.

Twenty minutes later I was walking down a very lonely sidewalk along side my sister. I was in the robe with nothing underneath. My feet were bare and my foot steps uneven and slow. It felt like to coldness from the pavement was seeping into the bones of my feet with every step I took. It was both numbing and painful, which made for a very unpleasant walk.

"Sit down, please." Domina pleaded.

"You sit down." I growled. The full exhaustion of changing so many times had finally hit me for real about a few minutes earlier, but I refused to stop walking. It was all I could to to keep my mind off of what had happened.

"I am a phantom! If I sit it does nothing to ease this exhaustion, so please, let go of your silliness and just rest. Please!"

I was going to protest once more but a vehicle turned onto the road behind us and caught my attention. I'd recognize that old truck anywhere. I growled with irritation as Ben's ancient truck pulled up along side us. "Get in." He ordered.

"Go with him." Domina urged and then she was gone.

"Fuck off." I said to Ben. "I'm not in the mood for your shit."

"Get... In..." He said more forcefully.

"Why?" I shouted. "So you can take me back to Adam's where everyone can poke and prod until I explain what the hell happened? No! I don't want to see anyone right now..." I started to cry, stopping in my tracks. "I don't want to face a soul! I don't want to face... him..." I felt dizzy.

He pulled up to the curb, parked and jumped out leaving the truck running. I wobbled and saw spots and I would have fallen and hit the pavement but he was there to catch me. "Damn it, Ruby." He growled, picking me up like you would a small child and walking me to the purring truck.

"No..." I grumbled through my anger and tiredness. "I don't want to go back... Please, Ben..."

"I wont take you back." He whispered, opening the passenger side door. He put me inside and was buckling me up as he said, "I'll take you some place quiet."

Next thing I knew, we were pulling up to an apartment complex somewhere. He parked, shut the truck off, came to my side to pull me out and was carrying me up cement steps with black metal railing before I said anything. "Where is this place. Where are you taking me." I managed, eyes fluttering, looking up at him. His chin was still scruffy with bristly shadow, but at that angle I could see just how smooth his neck was. He was wearing a dark v-neck sweater, though I wasn't awake enough to tell the actual color, and his long sleeves bunched at his elbows. Keys jingled in one of his hands and he smelled like Old Spice and that sweet smell I hated.

I stiffened in his arms and he hesitated before a door. "This is my place." He said softly. "You didn't want to go back so I brought you here."

"But-"

"You can bathe and you can have my bed." He blurted.

I stayed quiet and he continued to let us in, kick the door shut behind us and walk through his apartment. I was too tired to keep my eyes open so I shut them. It sounded like he had hard wood floors. He passed what I assumed was the kitchen and the living room and into a hallway, at the end of which was a room. His room, I was sure and it was carpeted. He laid me down on the bed gently and then left through a door different than the one we'd come through. It wasnt long before I heard the rush of running bath water.

He was beside me suddenly. "I will run your water warm and shallow so that I can leave you in there, give you your privacy and you wont drown if you happen to fall asleep." And then he left.

_He's being so nice... _I thought. _This reminds me of the night Stefan took me home and took care of me._ Tears welled into my closed eyes and spilled from the corners immediately. He walked back into the room as I was trying to swallow passed the burning, swelling feeling in my throat. That pain in your neck you always get when you have to cry hard but you stifle it.

"Can you walk?" I opened my eyes to him and stared, I new my nose would be red from the silent crying and I felt that my chin and lips were trembling.

"You killed... didn't you...?" He asked.

I huffed a sad sound and nodded. He frowned at me and something new entered him, something I'd never seen in his eyes before. _Understanding..._ He helped me up and led me to his bathroom. It was plain and white in there aside from the furry baby blue toilet seat cover and matching rugs. The tub took up a whole wall and had heavy sliding glass doors. The glass was clouded so you couldn't see through it.

"Here, I will help you." He was standing behind me, hands on my shoulders and starting for the knotted belt at my waist.

"What?" I squeaked. "No, stop!"

He let me go and backed away when I jerked around to see him. "I am only helping..." He said, and honestly, he looked like he meant it. "I swear it, Ruby. You're in bad shape." His hands were up like I had him at gun point.

I struggled to stay standing upright. "You wont look?" I asked.

"You worry about nudity even now?" He laughed unpleasantly and shook his head. "I wont look, I promise..." And he closed his eyes.

"Okay..." I turned around and lifted my arms so that he could get to the belt easily.

I felt his hands on my shoulders again but they were hesitant, blind. His fingertips slid down my back slowly, finding my waist and then moved around my front to untie the belt. The robe fell open and he found my shoulders again, pulling on the fabric until it fell to the floor, hushing in a pool around my ankles. He held me under my arms and helped me over the ledge of the tub and then turned me around to hold my hands and lower me into the water. Those few moments when I was naked and facing him were terrifying. He had his eyes closed but his face was angled towards me. If he'd just decided to be horrible to me and peek, if he'd decided to be the normal Ben, he would have seen me so exposed and weak.

He slid the shower doors shut and and then stepped out of the room, leaving the bathroom door open slightly. I heard him slide down the wall to sit outside and after a while I got to work on the blood caked to my skin and in my hair. The water was hot, just right. Shallow, but enough that I could enjoy myself a little. I scrubbed sluggishly at the bite wounds on my body and found that they'd healed. Not completely, but more like old scars. Puncture wounds marred my skin and they looked as if I'd received them many years ago and they'd had time to heal human slow, flawed. I closed my eyes and sighed to myself. I drifted to sleep for a while, feeling thankful that Ben had thought to run the water shallow. I didnt sleep long. Just long enough to know I'd missed some time. Long enough so feel rested. I was still exhausted, of course but I did feel a little better. Eyes still closed, I took a deep breath. Ben was still outside the door. His breath was different, slow and tired but not sleeping.

"How strange." Domina muttered. Suddenly I felt her skin. I opened my eyes and found myself leaning against her in the small tub, my back and head against her chest, her legs resting beside my hips and thighs. She traced a pair of punctures along my arm and sighed.

"They're sore." I said. "I'm not going to be one of them, am I?" I wondered aloud.

"No, no." Deep laughter rumbled in her chest and I turned onto my side to press my ear to her skin so that I could hear it. There was something about hearing a voice through the chest that way that always soothed me. "It takes a long time to become like them." she said.

_Them... Stefan..._ My chest tightened and my heart ached at the thought of him.

"Ruby?" It was Ben. I didn't answer, I just lay there with my back to the sliding doors, sobbing into the chest of my sister. "Ruby are you alright?"

He was in the room now. My sister kissed the top of my head and was gone. Her absence made the pain worse and I whispered. "How could he..."

"Ruby?" Ben was kneeling outside the sliding doors. "Who are you talking to? Ruby?" Metal and glass shook as he slid the door open slightly. I felt his eyes on my back.

"I can't believe it... I cant believe it."

"You can't believe what?" He pleaded. "What's wrong?"

"Stefan... he..."

The door slid open wider and he placed a palm on my shoulder and rubbed soft circles with his thumb. "Wait." He said. " How about you let me help you out of here and you can tell me about it after you're more comfortable..."

I sniffled and nodded at the wall and he was gone and back shortly with a towel. He helped me out of the tub, not looking as I'd instructed and led me to the bedroom. I didn't have the energy to dry off and I wasn't about to let Ben rub me down with a towel, so I settled for wrapping my head with it and snuggling into his robe. I collapsed on his soft bedspread thinking that in the last few days I'd worn so many different robes.

Ben crawled onto the bed behind me and spoke. "You were crying." He said. "Something about Stefan..."

I didn't think my heart could sink any further but it did. "I thought he was ours..." I whispered, eyes closed and weeping. "I thought he belonged to me and Domina..."

He was silent for a while before saying, "Something more than killing happened tonight." It wasn't a question and the way he said 'tonight' let me know that I really hadn't slept in the tub long at all.

"I could have died in there but it didn't matter... I just wanted to save him but when I found him he was..." My voice trailed off.

"You don't have to say it if you don't want to." He said.

I stayed quiet for a while, thinking about all the things that had happened. That's when I remembered the look of understanding in Ben's eyes when he'd asked me if I had killed. "I took life." I said finally. "They were vampires, already dead but-"

"That doesn't matter." He interjected. "They were dead but they still think and function... You still see the light leave their eyes when they go..."

"You've killed before?"

"Many times." he said. "Self control was not always something that I had... even when I was human the anger was hard to control... Even now after years of practice I still have trouble."

"Why the anger, though?" I asked. I wondered why he was always so hateful. He didn't answer so I asked another question. "How old are you?" I knew wolves could be old, but Ben acted the youngest of all the ones I knew.

He laughed a little. "No one ever asks me that..." And then he sighed. "I'm an old man Ruby... I haven't yet outlived a normal human life-span... but soon I will.. soon. I thought when I got old I'd be calm but no. I'm the same person I was when I was twenty. I haven't changed a bit, accept for I've learned a few new insulting names..."

He sounded terribly upset. "How does it feel to be so old yet so young?"

"Like dead weight." He spoke now without that arrogant edge in his voice. He just sounded.. tired. Very, very tired. "It feels like the world is still moving on around me and I am the same, stuck in this young body. People aren't supposed to stay strong and able like this. They're supposed to grow old and weak with their lover. I'll never do that. I'll never age. I'll never find a real wife. I'll never have a child. After ten years I'll have to move. Humans don't look the same after ten years because they age... and I can't come out to the public. People know how I am. They know about my anger. Adding 'Werewolf' to the equation wont help me any. I'll skip town every decade for the rest of my life until the madness takes me and the Marrok sends his son to take my head."

I rolled over to face him and he as just staring of into the space before him, leaning his back against the wooden headboard. "Being a wolf doesn't mean you can't take a wife or have children, Ben. Look at Adam. He was married and even had a child. Jesse is wonderful..."

He looked down at me solemnly. "Do you really think that I could take a human wife?" He looked away. "I'd argue with her once and get so pissed I'd tear her to pieces..." He whispered. "If I had a wife, she'd have to be a wolf. She'd have to be able to protect herself from me. She also wouldn't be able to carry a child. Female wolves cant." He laughed unpleasantly. "And who's says I'll find a wife anyways? Everybody knows what Benjamin thinks of women."

"They think you hate women.." I said.

He looked down at me. "I do hate women."

I frowned. "But you want a wife and a child?"

"Sometimes. " He looked away again. "I loathe females, but this place does get lonely... and quiet."

"Why the hate, Ben? Why all the anger and hostility towards women and all this..." I thought for a moment.

"Ugliness?" He offered.

I nodded wearily.

"Maybe terrible things happened to me because of a woman I loved... or thought I loved."

"You're this way because of a girlfriend?" _Must have been a horrific break up..._ I thought.

He glared down at me. "No." He said. "My mother." I wondered what a mother could do to a child that would make him so hateful as Ben, after all my own mother had never done anything less than love me. "She never helped me... She never protected me..."

I stared into his eyes and saw how much he hurt inside. "Protect you from what?"

"Terrible things..." He said. "Horrible things... My father, he..." He stopped short and slumped down from the head board. He lay he head down on the pillow and stared up at the ceiling. "My father had always been an angry man. He beat Mum all the time." He looked over at me. "But he hurt me worse."

He let that hang in the air for a while. For a moment or two I didn't know what could be worse than beating a child... but it hit me soon enough. "You mean he... he _hurt_ you?"

He looked away. "My father touched me..." He said, "And Mum never did a thing about it. I remember when I told her what he'd done." He laughed and it sounded like the beginnings of crying. "She didn't even ask if I was alright. What mother doesn't hold her child when she hears something like that?" He sniffled. "And the hateful thing is that she didn't deny it. She didn't tell me I was lying or that I shouldn't fib. No denial at all. She believed what I said and she pushed me away..." I couldn't say anything.. nothing at all. I just gaped at him. "But that's not what makes me hate her the most..." He continued. "Mum had picked up my father's serious habits. Drugs and drinking. He died of liver cancer when I was twelve. He left us drained of money and my Mother with expensive addictions. We kept our home because of my mother's friends. Men used to come in the night and she'd play it off like I didn't understand, but I did. I knew she was a whore. But when the money wasn't enough to feed her drug hunger... and she was in too much pain to put out... she let them have me too."

That was enough to make me sit up. Exhausted and about to keel over, his words startled me. His mother had whored him out. His own mother. I looked at him incredulously and felt tears in my eyes again. "Ben... I'm so sorry..."

He looked up at me and his eyes glistened. He kept swallowing like his throat hurt and I knew he was feeling that ache, that burning pain in his throat because he wanted to cry but he didn't want to do it in front of me. I'd reached out and laid my fingertips against his neck before I thought the decision through. I touched him, but he caught me wrist and held it there, eyes golden and shimmering. I realized that reaching for the throat of an upset werewolf hadn't been such a good idea.

"Why don't you just cry?" I whispered. "I wasn't going to hurt you, I just..." I'd never seen the wolf drain from somebody's eyes before until just then. I'd seen a wolf with amber eyes turn away from me and only look back when his eyes were normal again, sure, but the way it looked when I stared into his eyes and watched the wolf just drain away was beautiful. One moment they were shining and then the color slowly disappeared until flecks of gold swam in his blue eyes and then they were just blue again, like his wolf dove deep into the core of him below the surface where I could not see. It was gorgeous and I wondered why all the others hid that change from sight. I wondered if the color change hurt. Maybe that was why they closed them.

His grip on my wrist loosened and I came to lay down beside him. He turned to me and I wrapped arms around his neck and head. His head was tucked into my chest, face buried in my cleavage, but I let it go. That sweetness of arousal was nowhere to be smelled and he was hurting so I let him do as he liked. I thought for a moment that maybe it should have been me being held and before he'd started talking I might have really wanted that, but holding onto him made me feel better about my own problems. Being close to someone eased my own pain for a while and even if it hadn't helped, it wouldn't have mattered because that might have been the only time Ben had ever poured his heart out... I wasn't about to ruin that.

I buried my face in his hair and he wrapped his arms around my waist. When I felt his breath sigh against my skin and he relaxed into me, I relaxed as well. He cried for a few moments and was much quieter than I expected. I'd have thought he was just sniffling if it weren't for the dampness of his face against my skin and the small shaking of his shoulders every once in a while. Finally he spoke. "The only one who knows besides you is Adam." He said. "I had to explain it to him... He thought I really had hurt those women in England. I hate most women because of my mother but I could never _rape_ anybody... I could never do that."

Of course he couldn't hurt anybody that way. Not when he understood what it meant to be violated. "I'm sorry I called you a rapist..." I said.

He didn't say anything, just snuggled into me and that's how we slept.


	24. Chapter 23

I woke to the feeling of hot, hot breath hushing across my neck and chest ever so softly. I was laying on my back with the weight of a warm body resting on top of me. Memories of the night before flooded my waking mind and I remembered Stefan and what he'd done. Marsilia's naked body and the intensity of her stare. Edwin's fingertips brushing the bare skin of my waist. Walking in the streets bare footed and the frozen cold seeping into my flesh, my bones. I remembered Ben running my bath water and I remembered what he'd told me… what his mother had done to him all those years ago. Most of all I remembered the beauty of those eyes of his and the wolf draining out of them as he stared into me.

_Are things going to be different between us now? _I wondered to myself. Really, it was a good question. I'd thought last night that that might have been the only time he'd ever opened himself up like that, aside from having to tell Adam about his past so that he wouldn't think he'd raped those women in England. I highly doubt that _their_ conversation had ended with Ben sobbing into Adam's breasts, followed by a long night of intertwined slumber. Surely not.

I listened to Ben's breathing as he lay there. It pulsed across my skin, soothingly. The waving hair of his head rippled as my own breath rushed threw it. One of his arms was wrapped around my waist and the other was resting limply beside my head on the pillow. Soft, smoky-grey light streamed into the room through the small slits in the window blinds. We'd slept until evening, which wasn't a surprise. We'd stayed up all night and we had both been exhausted.

Ben inhaled deeply and sighed in his sleep, the roughness of his chin brushing against my chest. Funny how just days ago I was sure that waking up beside him was not what I wanted. I could never have imagined it would be so… pleasant. Of course he wasn't awake. When he woke I'd really know how it would be. But, for the moment, I just enjoyed myself. I never got to just enjoy being close to someone like this. Of course there was Domina and Stefan that I'd laid so close to before… But Domina was all in my mind and Stefan isn't warm and soft like Ben is. He's cool and he doesn't breathe or sigh tiredly in his sleep. When Ben sleeps he's a big comfy ball of warmth. I liked it. _Huh… Fancy that…_

I raised my arms up and touched his back tentatively. His dark v-neck sweater, which appeared to be a deep forest green now that I could really see it, had shimmied up to his ribs in his sleep. I held him and pretended he was mine, rubbing a thumb back and forth across his soft skin. We hadn't had sex so of course he wasn't _mine_… but I tried to pretend that I could hold him like this whenever I wanted. I felt as silly as I had the night I stared at Stefan and me in the mirror… I remember I'd smiled as pleasantly as I could manage and pretended that I belonged there in his arms. I'd say it was insecurity that drove me to do both things but that wasn't quite it. Maybe sometimes I feel a little out of my comfort zone, but I think if fighting ravenous vampires, staying with werewolves and learning that I'm not as human as I think I am is the only thing that's put me over the edge in a long time, I'd say I'm a pretty sturdy gal. In all seriousness though, I think I'm just feeling lonely. Yeah, that's it. Even the morally strong and attitude-wealthy need somebody, don't they? Pretending someone is mine for a moment makes me feel a little better, I guess.

Still, even though I knew about Ben's past and even though he'd shown me the softer side of him it was hard to love him… Of course I still don't really know a thing about Stefan and I'd already started to feel like I loved him… but Stefan was easier to feel that way for. There was something about the way that he was that just made me _want_ to love him… _So much for all of that…_

I felt Ben wake in my arms. Felt his breathing change and his body tense. I stopped my thumb rubbing against his skin and froze as well.

_Is he going to lay here some more or call me a whore and boot me out?_ I had no idea. _Moment of truth, Ben… Moment of truth…_

He stirred, pulling his arm from around my waist and raising his upper body up so that he could see me. As he did that, I took my hands away from his back and let my arms fall to either side of me on the bedspread. His lips and eyes were puffy from sleep and his cheek was pink where it had been pressed against my chest.

"M-morning…" my voice was so quiet I don't think he'd have heard it if he wasn't a wolf.

He stayed staring at me for a moment and then cocked his head to the side and said tiredly, "Your hair does look nice like that… when it's all over the pillow that way…"

The phone rang then and that was fine with me because I had know idea what the hell I would have said to that. He just stayed there looking at my like that, though and let the phone ring and ring until the answering machine picked up.

'_I'm not here. Leave a message.' _ Short, sweet and to the point. "Ben, this is Daryl. I've called you three times now. If you don't get your ass over to Adam's I'll come down there and get you." He growled. Even over the phone he sounded deadly. "Everyone needs to be here by sun down. Ruby's missing." And he hung up.

"I'm missing?" I asked.

"I saw you jump out of the window last night. You took off down the street and I went back for my truck and tracked you down." He said. "I didn't tell anyone where I'd gone."

"Thanks for taking me here…" I said. "And thanks for running my bath and being so nice…" It sounded generic even to me but it was the truth.

"Thank you for listening…" His face was blank when he said it, like he was trying to hide all of his emotions from me.

"No problem." I said.

A half hour later Ben was driving me to Adams. I was dreading our arrival because the sun was already down which mean we were late and everyone in the whole pack would be there. Ben told me I hadn't even seen half of Adam's wolves. That made me wince. How big was a Wolf pack anyways? I had no idea. Did I mention I was wearing Ben's clothes? Yeah. I obviously didn't bring anything of my own with me and the only thing Ben had that I could fit was a pair of his plaid boxers and one of his work t-shirts that said 'Geek Squad' across the chest.

We pulled into the driveway and Ben even got out and opened my door for me. I gave him a funny look when he did it and he smirked, stepping aside and saying. "M'lady."

I gave him another look that made him laugh out loud. "Don't worry Love, this isn't going to be usual thing. It's all part of the show."

I hopped out of the truck and he shut the door. "Show?" I asked.

"You went missing last night and I haven't answered my phone or returned any calls all day… now you're showing up to a meeting with me and in my clothes." He was grinning, leaning against his car and looking down at me. "This is going to be lovely."

"Shit." _Just my luck._

We walked up to the house and the place reeked of fur and tingly power. Werewolves. Ben knocked on the door and Mercy answered. "Ben thank god y-" She paused when her eyes drifted to me. "Ruby!" She jumped outside and threw her arms around me. "We thought Marsilia came back for you!"

She brought me inside and into the living room where I got the same reaction from Warren and a less enthusiastic version from Adam. The place was packed and everyone was staring at me. I knew my 'Geek Squad' top hadn't gone un-noticed.

Somebody finally spoke up about it. "Daryl's been calling you all day, Ben." This from a plastic looking woman in the back whos thick make-up, dramatic curves and six inch heels reminded me of Kim Kardashian. "Where were you all this time? With her?" She looked me up and down like she didn't approve. I hated her instantly.

"We didn't fuck, if that's what you mean to ask." _Good ol' Ben…_

"Watch it." It was Warren speaking to Ben.

"Ben's right." I glared at the woman. "And it isn't any of your business anyways so shut your trap."

She shut her pretty eyes and only looked at me again when I could see her wolf staring back at me. Domina made me take a step forward and I felt a deep growl trickle from my lips. It was a sound not meant for a human throat to make and I knew, when she turned her face away from me, that my eyes had bled to that perfect sapphire blue that belonged to my sister. Domina's feelings were very clear to me in that moment. This was a dominant female we were talking to. Domina did not like dominant females. Not one bit.

"Domina promised no violence unless it was to protect you or my daughter." Adam said cautiously.

I looked to him and smirked, nodding. "So be it." Domina's words, not mine.

He nodded back to me and I took a step back towards Ben, Mercy and Warren, away from the tens of wolves stacked around the living room and piled into couches and in chairs.

Things we silent for a while before Adam finally announced that because there was no need to go looking for me anymore, the main problem was Marsilia. She would no doubt be looking to even the odds sometime soon if not this very night. He had sent more than half the pack out to keep an eye on Marsilia's territory or watch Adam's own territory at designated posts when Stefan arrived. _Oh Joy..._

The Marrok and both his sons, Mercy, Adam, Warren and Ben were all that was left it he house and we smelled Stefan before he knocked at the front door. The scent was like popcorn, the good buttery kind, and soft cologne. I stood abruptly from where I'd been sitting on Adam's couch and started to walk upstairs.

"Where are you going?" Mercy asked. I could see in her eyes that she knew it had something to do with Stefan. I'd thrown him across the room and into the damned floor lamp for god's sake. They all had to be wondering what that was about...

"I just don't really want to see him right now. Will you call me when he leaves?"

"But I'm here to see_ you_..." I heard his voice and then felt him in the room.

I turned and he was just there in a pair of attractively worn jeans and a Transformers T-shirt that fit him so well. I liked the transition from ridiculous button-up shirts to slim fit top. It was exceptionally hard to stay so mad at him when he looked so good. He even left his hair down, which seemed a lot longer than it had been when I'd first met him. I'd say it grew out faster than human growth but I didn't know, I mean, did vampire hair even grow? Did he just will it to be longer and then it was? I hadn't even known his for a whole month... not even for a whole half a month. No one's hair grows that fast, does it?

"I don't want to see you." I said flatly.

"You're seeing me." Now that was childish... it did piss me off though which, i'm sure, isnt the way he'll want me if he wants to talk.

"What do you want?" I growled.

"Okay, okay..." Mercy stood up. "What happened?"

"Nothing." Stefan said abruptly.

"Oh, something happened." She continued. "You went to save him, Ruby and then you get back and you guys are totally different. Something happened there. What was it?" When I said nothing she turned to Ben. "She stayed with you. Did she say anything?"

"If she stayed with Ben, things are obviously amiss." Charles added.

Ben was smart enough to let that go. To Mercy he answered. "No. I could tell something went wrong but I told her she didnt have to talk about it if she didn't want to."

Mercy frowned and Stefan spoke to me again. "I want to explain something to you. Please, can we talk?"

"No, Stefan, we can't talk. I saw all I can handle from you." My voice was cold.

"You need to know the reason behind what you witnessed. Please, if I could only speak with y-"

"No!" I shouted. "No speaking! No chatting! And no fucking either!"

He winced at that and his next words were spoken with the stirrings of some emotion but I couldn't tell yet if it was sadness or anger. "You don't understand, Ruby. I had to do what I did. Do you think I _wanted _that! Do you think I _enjoyed _that?" Yep, it was anger. "How could you possibly-"

"Woah, woah, woah..." Mercy continued to mumble something to the others about how she wished she wouldn't have ever asked.

"You get the _fuck_ out of here, Stefan..." I growled. "I don't want to see you."

His face twisted into something angry and ferocious then and it was painful to see him looking so hateful. "You do not own this home!" He was truly angry now and shouting. "This is not your place! You do _not_ have the grounds to resend my invitation!"

"Well I'm _sure_ if they knew the truth they wouldn't want you here either!" A good ol' fashioned screaming match.

"It is none of their business! And it isn't my fault! If you would only let me explain, you would know!"

"I saw what was going on, Stefan! I am not a child! You make it sound like if I'd only listen I'd see you were only being _practical_!" I shook my head and rolled my eyes.

"I Am two hundred and fifty-seven years old, you stupid girl! Practicality is all that I am!"

"What the hell is going on?" Sam stood up.

"Stefan fucked Marsilia!" I screamed it and it felt good.

Mercy made a small yipping sound and covered her mouth, staring at the both of us. "You did what?" She gasped through her fingers.

Stefan growled wordlessly. Ben whistled out a long dipping sound that meant, 'wow...' and it was cut off by Stefan's ranting. "This was between you and me! Why bring her in to it when this is our business? Do you see what you've done? Do you see the way you make her look at me?" He was pointing at Mercy. "It's like I am shit now!" He cursed. Not a way I'm used to hearing he speak.

"You care about what she thinks but what I felt when I walked in on that _disaster_ is none of your concern? Do you realize how _awful _that is?" I was shouting. "If you were just going to fuck your Mistress in the first place, why make me think that we could be together?"

"That is not fair and you know good and god damned well it isn't, Ruby Talbot!" He was so pissed that we wasn't trying to conceal his fangs anymore. His face no longer held that calm elegance it always did. Now it was creased with anger and hard lines that made him look so much older. "Of course I care about how you feel! That's why I'm here! But now then you've gone and displayed our business for them all to see! For Mercy to see!"

"We it sure as hell didn't _look _like you cared when I caught you with your _girlfriend! _And if you care about Mercy so much why did you even bother with me?" I roared.

"BECAUSE I CANNOT HAVE HER!"

The room was silent after that, aside from Mercy covering her eyes and hissing, "Christ..." under her breath.

"Well then..." My voice was tiny. "So glad I could be your Mercy substitute for a while, Stefan..."

His eyes softened then and he did look sorry. "You are not playing fair…"

"Stop with this _fair_ shit, Stefan. Things haven't been _fair_ since I met you or even before then, for that matter. Screw fairness.."

I think he might have said something more if the door bell didn't ring just then. We'd all spent so much time arguing, or in everyone else's case, watching the arguing, that no one had sensed someone approaching the house. All the monsters including myself, the thought of which was unsettling, took a deep breath, scenting the air.

"Vampire." The Marrok was on his feet and everyone else followed.

Stefan was suddenly at the door, yanking it open and dragging the vampire on the porch to his knees, just outside the threshold. It took me a little while to recognize the man because he did look different without smears of blood on his face. He wasn't choking on fear and his organs weren't in his lap but I knew that I knew him. He was the young man I'd gutted in Marsilia's hall. Kneeling there, Stefan's grip tight around his slender neck, he stared at me with those silvery eyes, so light blue he looked like he could be blind.

Stefan called his name with that tone I hated, that aching power in his voice that physically hurt. "Bartolome." He said.


	25. Chapter 24

**[A/N]**

**Hey everyone! Long time no see!**

**So, I've finally written Chapter 24. It's been forever, I know... So sorry.**

**This chapter might be a little rocky since i'm trying to get back into the flow and mood of Ruby Talbot after so long, so my apologies for any bumps in advance, haha. As always I appreciate any and all forms of feedback. I would especially like some critiques on this chapter because I'm a little nervous about the transition. I hope Chapter 23 and 24 fit together well. If I did okay let me know! and if its a piece of crap tell me why! hahaha. Thank you to all who are still reading :)**

Silver eyes stared at me through a curtain of crimson hair.

"What business do you have here?" Stefan roared. "Why have you come?"

Bartolome winced as Stefan shook him by the grip he had on his neck. "I came to see her…" He stared at me still, not blinking. It was unnerving and he reeked of blood and pain.

"Kill him." It was the Marrok. "If he is Marsillia's, then whatever he is seeing, she is seeing too, no doubt."

"I know him." I said staring back at the man I was sure I'd killed.

"How could you possibly?" Stefan growled back at me.

"I gutted him when I thought I was saving your life.." My voice was cold, harsh "left him bleeding and choking in the hall."

Stefan winced at that and I felt other eyes in the room fall upon me with shock and uncertainly.

"I-I am not M-Marsillia's anymore…" His voice was rough, like he hadn't finished healing from the night before. "I am yours…" His clothes were the same from last night, ripped and covered in old blood.

"Bullshit." Stefan growled, yanking him to his feet and starting towards the porch steps.

"It is true!" He pleaded. "It is! Her blood is in me." He looked passed Stefan to me frantically. "Please! I swear it! Miss Talbot! Do not let him have me!"

His words pulled at me. I was so angry… I felt so betrayed… There was so much hate in me now but I knew that the Ruby Talbot before having her heart torn out would say something. She would… "What does he mean he has my blood?"

Stefan halted but kept a hold of Bartolome's neck. "It doesn't matter. He is not on our side." He didn't look back at me.

"But I am!" Bartolome pleaded, gripping Stefan's arm. "I am, I am. Don't you remember? You tore my flesh open in that hall, but don't you remember how badly you were bleeding? It was everywhere! On my skin.. In my wounds.." He swallowed hard. "Marsillia cast me out when she found me like an old useless dog. She took my strength away and dumped me outside the territory, leaving me to wait for the sun to come up."

"Liar!" Stefan shouted.

"It is true! I swear it is… And if you do not claim me, Ruby, there will be no need to kill me. I will waste away all on my own."

"A leech without a host." Sam said.

"What?" I asked.

"He is a weakling." Charles answered.

"He may be old," Bran continued, "but his vampirism doesn't seem to have matured. He needs a base, a power source to feed off of, like Marsillia. Otherwise his life force will just drain from him. He is like a Submissive Wolf, only not having an Alpha will literally kill him."

"He isn't powerful enough to sustain himself.." Adam added.

I wasn't angry anymore. I just felt bad. Bartolome was going to meet second and final death if he didn't find a willing power source. Even if I wanted to help him, which I was sure I wasn't strong enough to do, It would just complicate everything for me even more.

Upon thinking that, guilt hit me hard and I knew that every monster in the room could smell it on me like thick, musty perfume. I would run head first into the vampire seethe to save a man who wasn't even my mate, but I wouldn't at least try to help this man standing before us all begging to keep his life?

Their eyes were searching me, prodding, wondering. So I said finally, "Lets at least hear him out.." My voice was tiny. I was ashamed of myself. "I don't think he's lying."

"We don't have to hear anything more." It was Stefan. "I already know what he wants.. what it would take to save him now, and no one here will like it."

"Please Stefan…" Bartolome's voice was smaller than mine now. "Please let her hear.. I do not want to die.. I do not want to meet the sun and fire all alone.."

The room was silent. Waiting. I knew that Stefan was having a hard time denying our dying guest because; even after all of his anger he was still Stefan.

_Still Stefan… _I thought about that for a moment and decided that when everything calmed down, I would listen to what Stefan wanted to tell me... Because he's Stefan and even though he's an old complicated Vampire, he's still a good man.

Stefan retracted his hand and turned to us all. "Perhaps he can come in and sit? He isn't strong enough to do more than hold his own head up."

We all looked back at Adam. His house, His rules. He looked around at all of us and sighed when his eyes fell upon Mercy. She and I were very much alike, which meant She was giving him the, 'Please? Just this once?' look.

"Fine."

We were all sitting in the living room analyzing the situation when the fluttering of white fabric caught my eye.

Domina stood at the base of the stairs with her arms crossed. "Do you really want to go through with this?" She asked.

I didn't answer her. Not in front of everyone. I thought it would be best not to make a habit of speaking to her out loud when there were people around even if they did know she was real.

She unfolded her arms and stalked across the room. "This is ridiculous." She stomped her foot.

I knew the minute Stefan had started explaining to us all about blood ties and me binding myself to Bartolome to save him that Domina would instantly hate the idea. Apparently, in order to save the dying dead man, I was going to have to give up more blood and so was he. A blood exchange. After that, Bartolome would be living off of my life force, which sounded a lot worse than it actually was.

He would be perfectly healthy as long as I had enough power to sustain him. And we were all in agreement that that was a strong possibility. My power was certainly growing and Bartolome was as weak as vampires came. Lastly, if anything happened to me, Bartolome would be harmed as well. Maybe ten fold since he would be dependent on me and not the other way around. So in a sense, this whole thing would save a man, keep me exercising and perfecting these newfound abilities of mine and motivate me to stay out of harms way. But that didn't mean Domina had to like it. Ben looked angry as well and I could understand why. Same way I understood the crease in Stefan's forehead and the frown on the faces of Warren, Sam and Adam. Mercy didn't look thrilled, but I think she was leaving it all up to me. This was my choice.

"So, is everyone in agreement?" Stefan asked.

"I wouldn't do it myself," Charles began, "But it doesn't sound like a terribly unhealthy choice if she's adamant about saving this man."

"I think it's idiotic." Ben growled. Had it not been for the conversation we'd had last night, I'd have told him to shut his god damned mouth… Now his jabs actually seemed to sting. I pushed that thought aside. I didn't want to analyze my new opinion of Ben just yet.

"What is there for us to gain from this, Sister?" Domina's voice was insistent.

Bartolome spoke almost as if he had heard Domina. "I may be at the bottom of the vampire food chain, but that doesn't mean I have no talents." He wheezed and coughed like a sick old man. "Tell her…"

"Just like I have a talent for teleportation, Bartolome also has something special that he can do. He is a healer," Stefan said to me. "and I'm assuming that is the only reason why he was able to keep himself alive long enough to track you down. I think that, if you are bound to him, it may prove very useful. If you do not suffocate his powers as Marsillia has done, he may even bloom into something stronger than he is now."

"Why didn't Marsillia encourage his gift?" Sam asked.

"She is much too stubborn for that." Bartolome coughed.

"That and she is powerful enough to sustain all of her subjects alone. "Said Stefan. "Why would she ever ask for help?"

"Who is to say that he wont betray Ruby if he grows stronger?" Ben growled.

"Binding them together will make Ruby his master and Bartolome her servant." Stefan assured. "No betrayal is possible."

"Just like no betrayal between you and your mistress was possible?" Ben was standing now.

"That is a different situation entirely… I am not bound to Marsillia that way…"

"I knew it…" Bartolome grinned. "You never have been, have you?"

"Never."

"Perhaps there is something to gain from this after all." Domina said thoughtfully.

"I had hoped you would see that."

I stared at Bartolome who had, for the second time now, said something as if he could hear my sister. To my astonishment he was staring right at her…

Domina looked as shocked as everyone else did. "You… you can see me?"

Bartolome looked confused. "Why would I not see you, Ma'am?"

"What's going on?" Mercy asked.

I just stared, marveling at Bartolome. "He can se her… He can see Domina.."


	26. Chapter 25

**[A/N]**

**New chapter, yeah! haha. So, I don't know if anyone has ever read the Anita Blake series by Laurell K. Hamilton but I started reading it recently, finished like 10 of the books and liked them but realized that the character Damian really needs some love... I suppose Bartolome is my Damian, though his vampire tricks and such are certainly different... hopefully things will turn out better for him in my story. [no offense towards Laurell or any of her fans intended.] And if you have never read the Anita Blake series, don't worry about a thing, hahaha.**

**Hope you all enjoy.**

**:D**

**[Ruby's P.O.V.]**

"H-how can you see me?" Domina gasped.

"I… don't understand…" Bartolome just sat there; wreaking of old gore, stained with the brown crusting smears of old blood and staring up at Domina, dumbfounded.

We all stared at him for a while until Stefan finally broke the silence. "Perhaps it is your blood, still in his system, that allows him to view her…?" He offered.

"But how much was even transferred into him?" I asked. It couldn't have been that much… I'd only been standing over him for a few moments…

"It doesn't take much.." Stefan said.

"So true." Bartolome agreed. "Blood is such a sensitive substance… Most times it can be a glimpse into the life and mind of our meals…"

"And too many of us abuse that…" Stefan was staring off into some distant memory, as was Bartolome who had hummed in agreement.

"So because my blood is still in your system, you can see Domina." I said softly.

Bartolome looked away from whatever distasteful past memory he had been recollecting to say, "Perhaps that is so… but I still do not understand who this woman is or why she can not be seen by everyone else…"

_Shit… _I guessed that the quickest way to help him understand would be to just throw everything out in the open. He'd been a member of Marsillia's seethe, so maybe he already knew what I could do... but if no one had let him in on it, this was going to be strange news. "I am related to the Fae, which has given me the ability to copy the supernatural abilities of others on command and use them for myself." I felt naked, almost. We'd all been making such an effort to keep it a secret that throwing the knowledge at him so suddenly was like baring myself to him, revealing my deepest secret… but I guess I was... "Before I had some control over my power, I accidently copied Adams Lycanthropy. We suppose that since I did not truly 'Turn' like all wolves do, a wolf that already existed was bound to me. Domina." I gestured to her then and he looked her way. So did the others but they were blind to where she really stood. "She was a wolf centuries ago. She lived and she died. I don't know why the magic chose her or why everything turned out the way it did, but that's what happened." I explained. "I hear her voice in my mind and smell her scent when she surfaces from wherever she hides when I do not feel her presence. I see her walking around like she is one of us… like she is real. When the wind blows her gown ripples, her hair dances softly…" Domina was staring at me, a mixture of love and sorrow filling her eyes, threatening to spill over. She reached out to me with one pale perfect hand and I took it. "I even feel her skin, warm and pulsing with life when she touches me… but you all can not understand. Except for Bartolome, now." I looked over to him as Dominas sadness poured down my cheeks.

"So if we are bound together…" Bartolome started.

Charles continued his thought. "Then perhaps you will see her always."

"She will be as real to you as she is to Ruby." Mercy finished.

Suddenly I felt the overwhelming wave of Dominas power and I knew she was taking me over…

**[Stefan's P.O.V.]**

All I wanted to do was grab Ruby and make her understand how sorry I was. She'd seen us… Sweet Christ she'd seen us… I hated that she wasnt letting me explain myself but what did I expect? I'd taken her in… kissed her lips and held her… What's more is I had wanted to do those things and I had enjoyed it. I'd let her see that I'd enjoyed it.. For her to have seen me and Marsillia must have been devastating but what choice did I have! And how could I ever have foreseen that she'd be there…? I set those thoughts aside because, even though they were immensely important, I had even bigger problems to worry about. Problems like Bartolome… His reasoning for wanting to be bound to Ruby was sound but that didn't mean he wouldn't warp the situation to his advantage. None of them know Bartolome like I do. Weak as he is, he has always been able to woo the women of any century… and I'm sure he's just itching to reveal all of his abilities to Ruby... and not just the healing ones… It is times like this that make me wish I'd inherited more from Marsillia than teleportation…

The prickling wave of Ruby's power spread to me suddenly, pulling me from my stressful thoughts.

"We will do this exchange." Domina's words from Ruby's mouth. I could always tell when it was her, even if I didn't feel her power. Ruby was a forceful woman but Domina was on another level entirely. She could speak in such a way that made you want to bow before her… Something Ruby was too young and innocent to convey.

"Ruby didn't look as certain as all that." Adam growled. I assumed his now hostile look was due to the suddenness of Domina's presence and the quickness of her power spreading through the room. Soon, he regained his composure.

"I have seen the answer in Ruby's mind." Domina continued. "Still she contemplates it, but we both know the conclusion she will inevitably come to. She cannot abandon this one to die alone. " She gestured towards Bartolome. "It would be immoral for her to do so… and I want to make it abundantly clear…" She leaned forward, somehow making the t-shirt/boxer combo she was wearing seem elegant and Queen-like. "I want this."

Bartolome stared at her thoughtfully. "Why such urgency on my behalf?"

She stood and slinked to the center of the room. Something about the way she moved and the way she looked at all of us was so old… Domina was powerful, ancient and without words she reminded us of that. "I am invisible." She said. "A phantom when I am not inhabiting this girls body. Happy to have my existence back, no doubt, but what is that worth if I am but a ghost in the corner of Ruby Talbot's mind?" Her Sapphire eyes shimmered with tears, her voice became strained with the pain of loneliness and all I wanted to do, rather it was her or Ruby standing there, was to kiss her lips and mend her. "If you can see me," She looked down at Bartolome. "then I want you to see me always… I want you to turn your head when I enter a room… I want you to look my way and ask my opinion on any matter and to say hello or farewell when I come around or go to leave." She sat back down and turned her head away from us. "I want to exist to someone other than Ruby…"

**[Bartolome's P.O.V.]**

I never realized how refreshing existence could be, free from Marsillia's reign. Battered and bruised as I may be, I feel a great darkness has been lifted from me. Too long had I been so desperate to please her, the only woman in my long existence that I could never satisfy. Six centuries under her command and she could toss me aside as if she'd met me only the day before… Now it was all over and I could have a new Mistress. One dose of Ruby's blood and I knew. She was the perfect choice, not that I realized then that I'd be released from Marsillia's seethe or that Ruby would come rampaging through to kill what she could… but when I was cast aside, all I could feel was her. When Marsillia's life force left me all I could hold on to was the swirling of Ruby's blood in my gut… I can understand now why Andre looked crazed after drinking from her… I can only imagine the taste… Even now I can feel her power, pulsing. There is such rage in her, such anguish that she never releases… aside from the night at the seethe… but even through all of that anger there is kindness, love even and she is so very young. She couldn't be older than twenty-five, could she? So much time ahead of her to grow and mature into something so… powerful…

When I felt the wave of power roll off of her and the other woman speak of keeping me, of binding Ruby to me, I knew I was saved. My stomach roiled with pleasure at the thought. She would be my new mistress, so powerful yet I knew she would be good and just. I knew she would protect me. I would give anything to have a keeper like her but obedience and a few healing tricks from me would never compare to anything she could give… So how would I repay her for saving me from the sun… how would I repay her for taking me when the others wanted to throw me away? I almost grinned to myself… I knew exactly how, and I could not wait to show her…


	27. Chapter 26

"I just don't see why everyone has to watch." We were all in one of the guest rooms and they were crowded around me where I sat on the bed beside Bartolome. Ben had conveniently placed himself directly to my right and I could feel the weight of his disapproval rolling off of him. Stefan stood before me and the rest of them, Adam, Warren, Mercy, Bran, Charles and Sam, were behind him. Too many wolves in one room, for sure. They were the kind of monsters that could take up an entire space with their presence alone. This was unbearable.

"This is ridiculous." I growled.

"Well, I'm not going anywhere…" Ben growled at me.

"And I certainly will not go." It was Stefan.

"What is wrong, old friend? Don't you trust me?" Bartolome asked, a little heavy on the innocent tone. He was too beat up to sound so honestly concerned with Stefan's opinion of him. Stefan glared his way and spat something harsh in Italian. Bartolome shrugged and was silent.

"Ben, Stefan and Adam will keep watch in here with me." Bran spoke. "There is no need for anyone else…

Bartolome laid me down on the bed after everyone else left. I stared up and the white stuko ceiling, afraid. The promise of pain was frightening, but bearable. I'd suffered through enough of it to know it would pass and be over soon, but beckoning to it to rear its head and strike, waiting silently for it to approach... that was something different.

Bartolome's face came into view and hovered above my own. He was so incredibly pale, like printer paper or marble… His long crimson hair fell around our faces like a curtain the color of fresh blood.

"Do not fear me, young one." His voice was accented similar to Stefan's, but not quite the same. He seemed older, despite his semi-feminine complexion compared to Stefan's obvious masculinity. "When we do this, it should not be surprising for you to feel things… interesting things." He said, voice low and holding memories of older, long ago places.

I frowned harder than I already was. "What kinds of _interesting_ things?"

"Maybe you will feel my emotions. Maybe you will glimpse into my minds eye. It would not be uncommon for you to relive a memory of mine… or two. Nor I memories of yours."

I swallowed hard, pushing thoughts of my own past out of my mind. "Let's hope for your sake, things don't come to that."

"Can we get on with it?" Ben's growl reached us from beyond the false privacy of my new comrades sanguine hair.

Bartolome bent his neck so that his lips could reach my neck, his hair spilling softly across my face. I closed my eyes.. "It _will_ hurt…" He warned, breath cool against my skin. Unsettling. "But not for very long."

I took a deep breath. His hair smelled sweet through the blood and grime, like buttercups in soft summer light when I had expected some expensive cologne.

I felt his soft, wet tongue at my neck, tracing the big vein under the skin and then teeth. He locked his mouth around that spot and bit down. I didn't even feel his fangs sink into me, only pressure, which really said something about just how sharp they really were. There was no pain until he started to suck. _That_ hurt… a lot. Dull at first, but it matured into something, sharp and internal.

I sucked in a quick breath and my body tensed. I could feel something welling inside me, almost like the magic of shifting into the coyote but different somehow.

"Ruby Talbot…" Bartolome's voice echoed in my mind. The intrusion was startling at first, making me tense harder. "If you tense, the pain will become worse." I relaxed, reluctantly. "Very good." I heard him again and he continued to drink my life force.

When he finished, he stilled. He kept his mouth on my neck a while, swirling figure eights around the punctures in my flesh and lapping at the wounds before he came away. He started down at me, a drop of my blood slipping from his parted mouth to stripe crimson down his bottom lip before it dripped down to my collar bone. _"Oh Caro…" _ He sighed. "Now I see why Stefan keeps you…"

I thought about that for a moment. Stefan had never, to my knowledge, tasted me… ever. But he protected me still. Now I was really sorry about being so angry with him. How could I have thought he did not care for me?

"Your turn, _Mio Caro_…" Bartolome said.

When I tried to move it was damn near impossible. My muscles were jelly and I was exhausted.

"Don't worry," He said." You aren't used to loosing this much blood in one sitting." His scooped me into his arms and scooted up to lean against the headboard, resting my upon him so that my limp body lay sprawled between his legs and he could cradle me. I rolled my eyes up at him so that I could see his face.

"And this is where the fun begins…" With that he raised his wrist to his mouth and bit down. When he pulled it away again it was marred terribly. He hadn't just punctured himself like he'd done to me… he'd really bitten himself… torn flesh. He lowered the bloody mess to my lips and ordered me to drink.

Now, understanding that I was going to be exchanging blood with this man was one thing, but wrapping my lips around the gored flesh of his wrist and sucking was so far out of my idea of the whole thing it made my stomach cartwheel.

Stefan came to hold my head still for Bartolome when I gagged. "You must drink, Ruby." He ordered in the terrible tone he could use. "If you do not, you will be truly sick and you know what will happen to Bartolome…"

My heart sank and I knew I had to do it. It was disgusting, gut wrenchingly warm and metallic. When my tongue flicked across the wound I gave as loud a noise of protest as I could and tried to move but they held me still. I continued to drink, knowing that as long as I didn't touch the wound again, I would be fine…

When the wound closed and he pulled his wrist away, I felt something strange bubbling in my gut. An amplified version of what had began to stir in me earlier. "W-what is this…?"

"What?" Ben wasn't happy, alarmed. "What's happening?"

"Vampire magic." Stefan answered him, going back to assume his previous spot.

Bartolome's voice rumbled through his chest and into my ear. "Stay calm and ride it, Girl…" He told me. "and everything will run smoothly.

I wanted to ask more about what was about to happen but I couldn't. The roiling blossomed into something powerful and they all disappeared suddenly…

And then I was sitting in darkness with nothing but that delicious feeling to warm me…


	28. Chapter 27

I sat there in darkness, unafraid. I think any other time I might have been terrified, I mean, I wasn't even in the guest room anymore. I was sitting upright somewhere in the dark… Was this all in my mind? Was any of this real at all?

"Yes… and no…" Bartolome's voice floated to me on a soft wind.

"Bartolome?" I asked the blackness around me. "Where are you? Where am I? Why cant I see you?"

"We will be seeing each other soon, _Mia Cara…_ Now is the time when we share with each other."

"Share what?" I feared that we might relive some of my worst memories…

"A memory perhaps… or feelings." He laughed softly. "Do not fear. Relax and ride the sensations of the blood and all will be well…"

I did as he said. I rolled over on my side and just lay there enjoying the feeling that rolled through me. It was like some kind of drug… something beautiful and full of pleasure.

Suddenly, there was a light far off in the distance before me. It grew and grew until a vast blue sky spread out over me and soft summer grass rose beneath my body. The smell of pine and fresh running stream water filled my nose and the heat of the sun laid soft kisses upon my bare skin. I stared out at an expanse of forest from where I lay at the top of a high hill.

"I have not seen such a beautiful sight in so many centuries…" Bartolome's voice whispered, breathy and full of awe.

It took me a while, but I realized that I knew where we were. As a girl, I came to this place whenever I stayed with my grandmother. It was the forest behind her house. I stayed here from sunrise to sunset somedays, playing and exploring for hours on end. It was one of the very few good memories I had. Back then, I hardly ever wore clothes. I smiled to myself at that thought, remembering how wild I used to be. Grandma used to always tell me to stay covered but as soon as I hit the tree line I stripped down to my little white cotton underwear and ran, pretending I was a wild wolf. Now, here in this place, I lay naked accept for a small pair of white panties. You'd think, as a severely nude-paranoid woman, I'd be losing my mind, but I just couldn't bring myself to care. Bartolome's magic had brought me to a place where I felt no fear, no stress and no worry… A safe place.

I felt his hand pat my naked back softly and automatically I knew what the touch meant. I raised myself up slightly so that he could sit beneath me and I could rest my upper body across his lap.

"_Cosi Bella…"_ He said.

"It is slightly different from the real memory I have of this place." I told him. "The sun was never so big and the forest never stretched on so far… there was always a point where the trees ended and you could see the city again."

He started to rub my skin softly, tracing my spine up and down, up and down. "How old where you?" He asked. "What part of your life does this memory come from?"

I didn't even ask him to stop touching me, which was surprising. But honestly, I didn't sense any lust from him… The way he did it seemed like a very old, comforting gesture. Like somewhere sometime long ago he'd touched someone else this way, someone he'd loved very much, so I let him do as he liked. "Very young." I answered him finally. "Maybe four or five."

"So young." He said softly. "The imagination runs wild in those early years. Perhaps this is what you imagined it was like back then. Maybe this is the way you wanted to see it."

"Yes." I agreed. "Maybe so."

Suddenly there was another pair of hands on me. I felt soft hair tickling my skin and then a cheek rested on the small of my back. "This is wonderful…" Domina sighed. " I can feel everything here, not just you… The sun is warm and the grass is soft. Here, the wind brushes tender fingers across my flesh…"

I rolled over so that Domina lay on my stomach now and I could look up at Bartolome. I almost moved to hide my chest with my hands but the urge never grew into physical movement. It was like the moment I worried for something, the pleasure of this place washed it away.

I laughed out loud when I discovered that I was not the only one wearing little white underwear. Apparently they were too and I assumed it was because, since they were experiencing my memory, they felt everything just as I did, they were as I was.

Domina reached up to caress Bartolome's cheek. He smiled at her and turned his head to kiss her palm. "I think I am going to enjoy having you around…" She told him.

He looked down at both of us. "And I am going to enjoy being around…"

I stared at his face. His skin didn't seem so pale in the sunlight. It had a rich peachy tone to it now and his nose and cheeks were sprinkled ever so faintly with tiny freckles. His eyes were bluer too and I thought that this must be the way he looked during his human life.

"You look like a young boy." I smiled at him again.

"I was not so very old when Marsillia first turned me…" He said to us. "Twenty, I think. I never did grow to be the strong, chiseled man I'd wanted to be. I have always been narrow, seemed innocent."

"But you are beautiful, still." It was Domina. "Tell us, how old are you now?"

"Six hundred and thirty, I believe… give or take a few decades."

"Sounds like you and Domina come from similar times." I said.

"Yes, things seem that way." She said. "But different lands with different customs."

"No matter." Bartolome told her.

"No matter." She repeated.

I closed my eyes and breathed deep. Soon the warmth of the sun faded along with its light. The weight of Domina's body disappeared with the last gust of non-existent wind and I could feel Bartolome and the guest room bed beneath me once more.

"That was amazing Ruby Talbot." Bartolome's voice rumbled through his chest.

"Certainly…" I whispered. I rolled over to see the others and they all gasped like they'd seen a ghost. Again, I couldn't worry about anything because, though we weren't in the special place anymore, I was still high on Bartolome's magic and nothing else mattered in the world but feeling good…

**[Ben's P.O.V.]**

She let him feed on her… I hated it, truly but its not like I could change it. She was who she was, you know? A raving bitch at times, not that I'm complaining, but a good person. Good people didn't throw men out in the dark and let them die. She was doing the only thing she could do. She was saving his life. Pity that I didn't care if he lived or died…

At the moment, I didn't know exactly how I was going to accept what she'd let him do to her, but I knew I would eventually find a way. Fancy that. Benjamin finding a way to love someone even for the things he doesn't like instead of throttling them and moving on. I was beginning to like the new me… and I was also beginning to fear him.

The moment the feeding stopped and she looked over to us _did_ make everything a little harder to deal with though… I sucked in a quick breath at the sight of her and tried to hold my anger down, I tried to keep it at bay. Her eyes… They were black. _All black._ The whites of them and all. Black glossy orbs in her head. She smiled at me and my heart sank. It was the look of pure pleasure, of intoxication…

I stormed out of the room. "You'll find a way." I hissed to myself. "You'll find a god damned way." And I was going to try my damnedest to find a way to accept it. It was a one-time thing, right? She wasn't going to let him do that to her all the time was she?

"Benjamin." Stefan called to me as I climbed down the front porch steps of Adam's house. I turned and glared. "You saw what just happened." It was a statement, not a question.

"I was in there with you." I sneered at him.

"Yes," he said, coming to lean against the stair railing. "But did you _see_?"

"Her eyes…" I said. "They were blackened completely"

"Entranced." He looked worried, which made me fear for Ruby. "I have seen many women fall into the void of those eyes…"

"What does that mean?"

"Those that you saw were the eyes of true ecstasy." He told me "Utter pleasure. It is his gift. One that he has taken from Marsillia."

"But it doesn't have to happen again, does it? Isn't it just a one time thing?"

He sighed and I knew I wasn't going to like what he had to say next. "I'm afraid that their feeding will be most frequent at first… but there will be a time very soon when it can stop."

"_Can _stop, or _will_ stop?"

"_Can_. Bartolome will not need the feedings to sustain himself after a week or so, but if they chose, they may continue on… Bartolome has the power to make her feel things we cant imagine. This first bite was initially painful for her in the beginning… but now that they are bound… He can make her crave it."

"Why would he do that if they are already bound? He is already saved." I growled.

"He is a man, Benjamin. What if you could give Ruby what he can? What if you could make the simplest touch pleasurable to her? What if you could turn her pain into something greater than the sport of lovers and read her heart like no one else can? Wouldn't you do that for her if she welcomed it, if she asked you for it?"

"He can do that?" a tremor of anger rocked through me.

"He can turn her into an addict without even meaning to." He explained. "He is her servant now and she is his mistress. If she wishes something of him, it is hers without question… If pleasure is what she wants… she will have it…"

"She'll be addicted to Bartolome? That's what you're saying to me…"

"Like a moth to a flame." He sighed. "And it doesn't take much time…"

I growled. How the _fuck_ was I supposed to compete with that? And how in the hell could I let her run blindly into his arms?

"I have a proposal for you, Benjamin." He said to me.

I looked up at him. "A what?"

"I do not dislike you, Benjamin. If you remember, we were both caged by the same monster once. We were captured together and we left together and during that time I learned to call you my friend. It is obvious now that our hearts desires have fallen upon the same prize, but Ruby's safety is more important than who gets to love her. We must work together on this as friends. We must be a team… Otherwise Bartolome will give her more than just feelings and take more from her than we want him to…"

He was right and I told him so. I didn't like working with anyone… But I liked letting some strange vampire make and addict of the woman I wanted even less. And according to Stefan, it wasn't just the addict part he was worried about. I could see in his eyes that he believed Bartolome would be taking more. He would be taking _her_ and then neither of us would have a chance.

"Will you help save her?" He asked me.

"What does saving her mean for us? What's stopping you from biting her and taking her for yourself once Bartolome doesn't need her blood anymore?" I asked.

"I do not have the gift that he does. My bite would hurt her always. I have never been able to mask it… Bartolome will be with her now and always… but if we play our cards right, she will not take him as a lover. All we have to do is occupy her time. It's obvious she's interested in both of us." I could tell that he hated that last part. So did I. "Treat her. Court her. The more we are on her mind, the less Bartolome will be. Hopefully she we think of the bond between them as more of a business arrangement than a relationship… but it will be very hard… We can fight amongst ourselves when the storm has passed"

I nodded. "You've got yourself a deal." And then we shook on it.


	29. Chapter 28

I woke softly… eased into consciousness smoothly, comfortably. I was in the guestroom and the sheets were nice and warm, cozy. I couldn't remember ever getting a better night of sleep. I kept my eyes closed and rolled over onto my side, rubbing my smooth legs together and grinning to myself as I cuddled deeper into the fluffy comforter. I felt great, beautiful even. Like a queen. When I moved to stretch great and big, however, my mood changed suddenly. My leg, you see, had brushed against another in the bed… Another leg that was not Dominas, and it was so… _cold_.

I yipped and scooched back from it, opening my eyes wide to darkness. I reached down to rub my skin where it had touched. It tingled strangely… The windows were sealed, keeping out any outside light. It gave me an idea as to who was in the bed with me.

"Bartolome?" I whispered. No answer. "Stefan?" Still no reply. I reached over until I brushed the skin of an arm.

'_Definitely a man__**.'**_ I thought.

Then I felt more tingles. I kept my hand there, not shying away, to prove to myself that I was indeed feeling something… That there were in fact tingles and I wasn't going totally insane. When I moved upward to feel his hair I could tell it was Bartolome. Stefan's hair wasn't as long. I brushed the side of his face with my hand and moved closer to him.

Whatever sensations I was feeling, whatever the tingles were, they were coming from him and they felt beautiful. I wrapped myself around him. He was like stone and cold to the touch, but the longer I was against him the warmer and softer he started to feel.

"Feels good, no?" A voice fluttered to me from across the room.

I inhaled quickly. "What are you doing in here?"

Stefan huffed. "I needed a light tight place to sleep, too, Ruby."

"What time is it?"

"Around five in the evening." He said.

I thought that was very strange. "And you're… awake?" I asked him.

"I am getting old, Ruby… I don't always sleep until true dark… Bartolome, on the other hand, will sleep until dark."

"Oh…" My voice was small, mostly because I'd just realized that I had promised myself I would talk to Stefan about what had happened… But first, "Did you sleep on the floor?"

"I did." He said. "You need to be near _him_ for the time being. I thought it would be best.

After a small silence I said finally, "You can come up here… if you want to."

He didn't say anything for a while, but after a few moments I heard him stir and then crawl under the covers behind me. I thought it would be awkward for me to be wrapped around Bartolome while he was in the bed with us, so I rolled away from him to lie on my back. The instant I did that I missed the tingling sensation of him.

"How are you feeling?" He wasn't even that close to me and still his breath slinked across the sheets to snuggle into my neck.

"Well rested." I said, which was true. What I didn't tell him though was that, since I'd rolled away from the tingling of Bartolomes skin, a little headache had started to build in my skull. I knew that no one had really approved of the blood exchange in the first place, so I said nothing, just incase the two were related.

"Good." His voice was soft. "Ruby… I know this might not be the best time to talk about this but—"

"I'm sorry, Stefan." I blurted.

After a long pause he said, "Ruby, you didn't do anything wrong… It is I who… ruined everything…"

"No." I told him. "I hate what I saw… I hate what you did… But I didn't think about it clearly until last night."

"Ruby…"

"Listen, Stefan… You hate that woman. I know you hate her. You wouldn't ever do that unless you felt you had to. I have no idea what happened that night, or what was said, or who did what to put you in that situation, but what I do know is that you would have done _that_ unless you thought it was that only way." I took a deep breath. "I am also sorry for throwing everything out in the open for the others to hear. Especially Mercy… I've noticed the way you look at her sometimes. I know that you care for her very much and that she is one of your favorite people. I'm sure that the last thing you wanted was for either of us to know what happened. I was just too damned angry to let it go… I thought you were a liar. I thought you had been a fake this whole time but then Bartolome said something last night that made me think." I looked over to him but all I saw was darkness. "After he fed from me he said that he knew why you'd kept me. He said he knew why you would protect me like you do, and it was because of the taste of me.… but then I realized that you've never tasted me… and I haven't given you a single reason to take care of me. In fact, all I've done so far is curse, start trouble and give you shit about your t-shirt choices… I am very sorry… for everything." Before I shut up to see if he had anything to say to me I added, "And if I remind you of Mercy I don't blame you… If its her you really care for, it's wrong for me to do anything about it."

If I thought all his periods of silence and pausing were long so far, then the empty quietness that followed all of my talking lasted an eternity.

"I did care for Mercy a long while… But when she started to drift towards Adam, towards happiness, I abandoned that love. She is special to me, yes, but nothing more than a good friend now. Just like Adam is my friend and Warren too."

"I believe you." I told him.

He had more to say. "As for that night with Marsillia… If I would not have stayed with her, I believe she would have attacked Adams home and taken you… Killing many of Adams people and bringing you to Edwin's bed… I wasn't going to let her do that. I couldn't…" He took my hand in his and squeezed gently. "I could never have anticipated that you'd be there... never… and maybe it is wrong, but If you had never seen us, I would never have let you know what I had to do."

I believed all of that too, and I told him so. "Did you love her once?"

"When she first turned me, we became lovers, but I never truly loved her. Not quite. You already know that I am not bound to her like one of her children should be, and so the true pain of what she had done to me never did go away… I was a married man when she took my life…" I could believe it. Well, I could… but something like that had never crossed my mind. "I was away from home when she claimed me. I was a soldier of Italy. My wife was with child. I never got to see my baby. I never saw my wife again."

I rolled over and wrapped my arms around him. It was strange to be pretty much sandwiched in between two vampires in a bed… But oh well. I needed to hug Stefan and Bartolome would be as good as dead until true dark. I ran my hand across his chest. He was wearing a tank top and my legs were pressed against what I assumed were loose pajama pants. "I have been a terribly ungrateful." I said. "Will you forgive me for that?"

"I can, if you can forgive my actions as well…"

"Of course I can." I didn't know what to do then. Apologies given and apologies accepted. Good. But did that cure everything? Were we all right, or would things never be the same as they were?

He sighed and rested his arms around me. "I have missed you hugging me like this, you know."

"And I have missed you holding me." I told him truthfully.

"Last night, that's all I wanted to do." He sounded almost embarrassed. "I could see just how upset you were and I just wanted to hold you… and kiss you and make everything better." I almost offered to let him kiss me right then but… how would he react to that? It didn't matter what I thought though because a moment later he rolled me over and planted a soft kiss against my lips. When I didn't protest, he kissed me deeper and I wrapped my arms around his neck. "I missed that, too." He said.

I laughed softly. "That makes two of us."

We had been lying there together for about two hours when the tingling of Bartolome crept across the bed and brushed my skin. I sucked in a breath.

"He is waking." Stefan told me. "True dark is upon us. I will go and leave you to him." He kissed my cheek and disappeared.

I got out of bed and felt around in the dark for the window. There were plastic bags duct taped over it and a big plank of heavy wood propped against the glass to seal the light out. I removed the wood and let the moon light stream in.

The tingling was getting stronger so I went to the bed and lay down next to Bartolome. He woke and took in a great big breath. I knew he didn't need the breath, but the action made him seem more… alive to me, which was comforting. He pushed the covers aside and lay there stretching the long sleep away.

Pausing as if noticing something out of the ordinary, he looked over to me. "I don't think I've ever slept outside my coffin before…"

"Do you need it?" I asked him.

"No. That's just an old wives tale." He smiled at me. "How did you sleep?"

"Very well, actually." His energy was pulsing over me like little electric charges kissing my skin. I knew he could tell what I was feeling. I'm sure my eyes said it all.

He sat up and stared at me. I sat up too; feeling a little awkward… and embarrassed because the only thing I really wanted to do was touch all over him. "Come here." He said. I hesitated, but eventually I did crawl over to him. He cupped my face in his hand and I shivered, which made him smirk. "You are such a beautiful young woman, Miss Talbot… I am so lucky to have been saved by you…"

He'd seemed so young the night I'd wounded him, but the look in those silver eyes now was all man. It frightened me, even despite the fact that I wanted to nuzzle into his hand like a lonely cat.

He cocked his head to the side suddenly and looked at my curiously. "You can feel this thing between us… It arouses you slightly… but you do not draw nearer to me than this." He spoke of the distance that still stretched between us.

"I am at a crossroads…" I told him. "A four way intersection. I sit on my road staring at the other three… and I don't know which route to take." I looked away from him. "Just the other day I only had to choose from two… The magic between us now sort of adds you to the mix, I guess."

"Me." He said. "Stefan, obviously, and I'm assuming the edgy Englishman from last night occupies the third space."

"Yes."

"I see." When I looked up at him again he seemed thoughtful. "It is not a surprise that a pretty woman should have numerous admirers." He stroked my face and I moved away from him. He spoke to me again, his hand still hanging there in the air, rubbing his thumb and fingers together softly as if he could still feel me. "It also is not uncommon, as I know you can feel, for two people who are newly bonded to want to… consummate the new magic they feel…" Which is exactly what I had meant by 'the magic adding him to the mix'.

"I cant do that… It would jeopardize too much."

"Is that all you are worried for?" He crept closer.

I gave him a look that meant _'if you come any closer, I'm not responsible for your injuries'. _"What do you mean by that?"

"You forget that I tasted you, Miss Talbot… I know that you have never had a lover… It is only natural for a lady to fear such a thing when she has not yet tasted it."

I felt intense embarrassment first, and then I did what I always do when I'm embarrassed. I got really pissed. "That is none of your god damned business." I growled.

He smirked at me again. "I didn't dig for that information. Its just something you know when you taste anyone for the first time."

"You didn't have to bring it up. " I hated that he knew that about me… that was so private. It was a secret. One that nobody ever had to know about.

He just laughed at me. "Well I can't do anything about it now." I could feel him, what he was felling… why he seemed so amused with me. He thought my anger was cute…

"I am not _cute…_"

He laughed louder. "See, you can feel me already. A few more days of sharing blood and we will be able to peer into each other as easily as looking through an open window. Then it will be impossible for you to resist me."

"I've got a hell of a lot of will power, Bartolome. If I say 'No', then there's nothing you or your smooth accent can do about it."

I hated that his grin sent tingles down my spine. "We'll see about that, _Mia Cara_… but later. Now it is time to eat." And then he crawled over to me. As much as I didn't want to give in to him, I knew that I had to or he wouldn't survive.

When he bit me, I had this moment of discovery, of clarity just before I fell into that lovely dreamland with him. Maybe it was that the magic of a second feeding had allowed me to see into him more deeply just then, I don't know, but suddenly I knew that it didn't matter what he said because I had all the power. I was his Mistress. That gave me power over him and what I say goes… And in that moment, he defiantly knew who was boss.


	30. Chapter 29

We spent our time together before the view of the woods from my memories again. "Am I ever going to see anything from _your _mind?" I asked Bartolome.

"Soon." He said. "I just love this place so much. You can understand that cant you? It's just been so long… I never thought I'd feel the sun again this way. It does not burn me here."

I did understand, and honestly, I was perfectly content with coming here every time he fed from me. I was just curious about him. Wouldn't you be excited if you had the power to relive the memories of someone who was centuries old? To go back in time to places you had never been, places that did not exist anymore and never would again?

He rubbed that absent tracing pattern across my back as the last of the beautiful scene drained away and we were back in the guest room once more. His head was resting against my chest my arms were around him. "Where was Domina?" he asked me.

I didn't know and I told him so. "I didn't even feel her… which is really odd. She would never have missed that if she could have helped it." A small stab of fear thrust into my gut. The headache I had tried to keep to myself earlier tonight when I laid with Stefan roared to life and this time it was much worse. Something was wrong?

Bartolome's hand came up to cradle his own skull. "Why does your head hurt so?" He asked me, his voice strained

"I have no idea…" I told him.

"We should get Stefan—"

"No." I said. "Don't say a word. I want to figure this out first."

"Ruby, we really should tell someone. Headaches are not part of this feeding process. If you are in pain I fear something may be wrong. We need to tell someone."

Just then I remembered that moment of clarity I felt just before falling into the blood magic with him. I am his Mistress now. Stefan had said himself when we went over the process in the living room. Bartolome could not hurt me or do anything to me that I did not want him to do because I would hold power over him. I thought for a moment and then decided I'd try something.

"Bartolome." I said sternly. A wave of power rolled over him and his body stiffened. "As your Mistress I command you not to speak of my headache to anyone unless I say otherwise."

I felt the magic in him grow and then he relaxed as it dissipated away. "Yes, Mistress." He said. "As you wish."

'_I could get used to this.' _I thought.

**[Ben's P.O.V.]**

Ruby smelled like blood and _him_ when she came downstairs to eat something. It made me sick to think of him all over her, her eyes black like pitch and her blood in his mouth. I went to sit with her at the dining table when Stefan asked to speak to Bartolome outside.

"How are you feeling?" I asked her.

She looked up at me wearily, like she was hiding something. "I'm doing alright. You?"

"Good." I answered. "But… you look sick..." And it was the truth. She looked nauseous. I instantly blamed Bartolome. "What did he do to you?" I growled.

"It's nothing, Ben." She pushed my hand away when I tried to feel her forehead. I didn't have to touch it to know that she was burning up.

I grabbed her arm when she reached for a spoon to eat the cereal in front of her. "Talk to me, Ruby." I urged her. Something was obviously going on. Something that was really bothering her. "The dead men are outside and everyone else is having a conference in the safe room. So talk to me… please." I was worried for her and I needed her to know that.

She looked away from me. "Can we please go sit in your truck?"

"What?"

"Your truck, Ben. Can we go sit in your truck?"

Of course we could. I'd take her anywhere, give her anything if it would make her feel better…

**[Ruby's P.O.V.]**

I rolled Ben's truck window down to let the cold air blow in my face. It didn't help the pain in my head much, but it did feel great on my hot skin. Aside from my skull being on fire I was relatively comfy. I was in a pair of boxers and a tank top and Ben had insisted I wrap his big hoodie around me when we exited the house. I wriggled my warm toes in my little anklet socks.

He didn't say a word until he rummaged around in the truck bed and came to the cab with a small ice box. He shut the door as softly as he could and nudged me with a cold bottle.

I looked down. "What's that?"

"Medicine." He said. I took the beer from his him and opened it. "Now what the bloody hell is going on?" He looked anxious, worried even. That made me sad. I knew that he liked me. I knew that he cared, especially after he'd told me what had happened to him… but I think deep down inside I had still hoped to seriously downsize my growing bag of male admirers. The look in his eyes now told me he wasn't going anywhere anytime soon…

"I have a massive headache, Ben." I lifted the beer to my lips and drank as he opened a bottle of his own and did the same.

"And a fever." He added.

"And a fever." I repeated. "It started after I woke from the first feeding and now after the one tonight, it hurts so bad my ears are ringing."

"I knew something was up…" He said. "You slept through the whole day after that first time. They said it wouldn't be surprising for you to feel weak at first, but you should have recovered a lot quicker than that. You slept like the dead…"

"There's something else, too… I can't find Domina."

"What do you mean you can't find her?"

"I mean I can't find her. I mean she's gone and I can't feel her. I can't sense her anywhere. She does that sometimes… goes dormant for a few hours, sometimes a whole day and doesn't speak to me. But she wanted to be tied to Bartolome so badly. She wanted to be seen and noticed by someone else so deeply, I have no idea why she hasn't come around yet."

"When's the last time you saw her?" He asked.

"During the magic following the first feeding Bartolome and I shared a memory of mine. The view of the land behind my Grandmothers house. She was there with us and she seemed so happy, so content. She loved it there… but tonight we went to the very same place and she wasn't anywhere. There's no reason why she shouldn't have been there. It's very strange… I think something is very wrong."

"That Bastard!" He growled. "It's that fucking leech, Ruby, I'm tellin' you!"

"No! Not Bartolome. It isn't him."

"How the fuck do you know?"

"Because he can feel it too, Ben! The longer we are bound and the more we share blood the more we feel from each other. He said that soon we would just see right into one another. Soon, we wont be able to keep any secrets…" Ben looked disgusted and it broke my heart. "Bartolome can feel this pain in my head, this fear in my gut. He knows that something has gone wrong. Why would he do this to himself? Why would he urge me to seek help if it was him hurting me? If it was him hurting us?"

"Maybe you have a point…"

"I know I have a fucking point…"I scoffed and stared out the window as I drank my beer.

He reached for me, running a finger across the length of my jaw and then moved away to lean against the door. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be." I said.

"Okay." That made me laugh even through the headache. He chuckled too and then scooted closer to me. "I hate vampires." He said. "Stefan, he's a pretty good guy… for a dead man, but other vampires? I hate them…" he sighed. "Seeing you immersed in their magic is… hard."

"I understand." I said.

"But that doesn't mean that I'm not willing to… overlook it."

I looked up at him and he was staring at me. "What does that mean?"

"It means… that I really like you. It means that I care about you. It means that if you want to save this man, and he isn't the one doing this to you, then I can deal with what you two have to do to make that happen. Above all," He took a deep breath. "it means that I am willing to accept anything you feel you need to do, that is, if you ever feel like you might want to… I don't know." He swatted at the air and took another drink of his beer.

"If I ever want to be with you." I said. "That's what you were going to say."

"Yes. If you ever wanted to be with me." I started to say something like, _'Ben, things are so complicated right now…'_ but he stopped me with a hand on my knee. "You don't have to say anything now. I'm not asking you to be my lady tonight. All I want is a chance to show you why I think I'm the better choice. I want a chance to show you that I'm not just a racist, chauvinistic bastard…"

I reached to caress him face. "You are much more to me than that, Ben. You have to know that."

He put his hand over mine. "I know, Ruby. But give me time to fight for you. I know I'm not the only one who wants you… and I know I'm not the only one you want..."

And he was right about that. I could want all of them to go away. I could wish for Bartolome and Stefan and him to just leave me alone so that I didn't have to deal with all of the drama and confusion… but if that happened, I would miss all of them. There was a part of me that cared for and wanted _all_ of them… But there could only be one.

Just then there was a taping on the side of the truck. I took my hand away from Ben's face and looked out the back window. Bartolome and Stefan stood there, waiting.

_Awkward…_

We got out of the Truck and came around the back to meet them. "Something has happened with the Seethe." Stefan told us.

Bartolome was pale. You can't imagine the fear I felt when I saw that he, the palest man I had ever met in my entire life, was pale with fear and worry. "What? What's happened?"

"No activity." Bartolome said.

"No movement, no nothing." Stefan continued. "We don't know what exactly is going on but we know their planning something."

"Whatever is going on, it's bad." Bartolome said, staring straight at me, warning me to say something. "Marsillia only stops the patrols and parameter checks when she's up to something. When she needs everyone below to help with something…"

Just then Adam and Warren came outside. "We need you all inside." Adam said. He looked troubled.

Everyone was in the living room. The only one of us who didn't look scared was the Marrok, but even he was quieter than usual.

"According to Daryl," Warren drawled, "around nine o'clock, all patrols and protection magic surrounding the Seethe ceased and the lights went out inside. He said none of our people surrounding the area had reported any vampires leaving the premises. We couldn't sense anything for about an hour so we assumed they'd stayed inside for some reason."

"Below." Stefan and Bartolome said at the same time.

"She calls everyone down below only when we are being threatened and she needs everyone's magic in one place." Stefan said. "Something is about to happen..."

"Well we know that now…" Warren continued. "At about 10:15 Daryl radioed in saying he felt vampire magic pulsing from the place and lots of it. He was trying to warn me to make sure everything here was secure when the radio signal went dead…That was a half hour ago and I still cant reach him."

My headache was getting worse and worse and I knew I had to say something about it but before I could bring it to their attention I had this thought. A tiny voice in my head whispering to me, urging me…

'_**Kill him…" **_ It said. _**'Kill him before he ruins everything…'**_

I deep growl rumbled low in my throat and everyone turned to me. I felt lightheaded like someone was trying to make my limbs move, trying to make me do something awful, something horrifying that that didn't ever want to do.

"Ruby…?" Stefan came to my side and touched my arm lightly.

The voice came again. _**'Him… kill him before he destroys it all… before he destroys you…'**_ At first I thought it might be Domina whispering to me, but it felt all wrong… It was someone else…

"Everyone…" I said. It was becoming so hard to concentrate on anything but what the voice wanted me to do… "I am going to ask you to do something very important…" I looked up at Stefan and knew that whoever was in my head wanted me to destroy him. Marsillia… She wanted me to kill him…

"What is it Ruby?" Ben came to my side and so did Bartolome.

"Lock me… in the safe room cage…" I managed to say.

"What?" Adam and the rest of them were on their feet and starting towards me.

"Marsillia is in me…" And with that information out to them all, Marsillia lost it. I lost it.

I felt my nails grow long and I swiped at Stefan with razor sharp talons and the others jumped away from me. I caught his throat and blood gushed from his neck. Not a lot. _**Not enough… **_The wound wouldn't kill him.

"The safe room!" I screamed. And then my vision blurred and all I could think of was sinking my teeth into Stefan's hide…


End file.
